Eternal Night Side Stories
by Lawra
Summary: Ranma's work is never done for Hellsing, let alone when Integral uses our poor protagonist to deal with vampires all over the world.
1. Explanation

The basic premise behind this is Ranma being whored out to deal with various vampire events in different places. These side stories that will be written whenever I get the urge are sort of AU's to the main story. Events will be similar, but do to story reasons, or in-universe restraints these one shots will be put here.

Since all of these will be set after the main story, there will be spoilers both for everything that's currently written, and future events that may or may not unfold.

For the first side story, I've ended up dealing with Twilight.

Yes, Twilight.

* * *

Edit for the second chapter.

This chapter deals with what might have happened if Alucard was not in Japan to rescue Ranma.


	2. Twilight

Twilight

Neither Ranma 1/2 or Twilight is my property and this is not for any kind of profit.

"Speech"

'Thought'

Couple things before this starts. One, Ranma is a full and liberated vampire. Two, it takes place approximately two years after the main story. So obviously Ranma is going to be a bit different, but not that much.

X x x x x x

Ranma took a deep breath through her nose, taking in the scent of the forest around her before finally exhaling slowly. The night was late, a crescent moon just starting to fall behind a mountain across from her position on the side of another. Sitting on the root of a large tree, she watched the forest below for signs of movement.

Dressed in blue jeans, two modified Sig P229 pistols were contained within a tactical holster strapped to each thigh. A long black leather duster covered her orange tshirt, and of course helped to make her look more intimidating. Even though she was far shorter than most people in America. But since that helped her get the drop on her targets, it was best not to change it just for vanity. At least not at the moment.

"This was such a nice night." She said to herself, gazing at the moon. "And these stupid vampires kept me from enjoying it."

Several murders had drawn Hellsing's attention to this region of the world, murders that were caused by a blood sucking variety of creature. So because she had set off Integral by doing a few harmless pranks, it had become her job to go track down some lesser vampires and kill them. Integral wasn't real specific on whether or not she should kill just the one responsible, or just any she could find. Which meant she was going to play it by ear.

With a great deal of difficulty she had tracked a small group of them here. They were different from what she usually encountered, barely vampires really. Other than that they survived off blood there wasn't much similarity. The only reason they even stayed out of the sun was because their skin reflected the light in an obviously inhuman way. Ranma really wished that when being educated on the different types of vampires she had paid more attention.

Then again, that's what made this job fun. Slipping from her position, she took off down the steep hill. Bouncing between footholds, she paused briefly to find the next, before she was off again. The forest blurred into a wall of trees as she weaved her way through them. She could hear the struggling of an animal now and didn't need her extra perception to find her targets.

Pausing behind a tree, Ranma slowly leaned out to see two vampires feeding off a large grizzly bear. One was a dark haired female who was actually shorter than her with a thin build. The other was a blond male who was nearly two meters in height. Both were dressed like fashion models, so they were likely very wealthy or simply took what they wanted.

Having seen enough, she shoved her hands into the pockets of her jacket, and casually stepped out from behind the tree. It was strange watching a vampire feed from something other than a human and she was actually repulsed by the act. Blood maybe blood, but a vampire took it from a human source.

"Sorry if I'm interrupting." She spoke up, drawing the pair's attention. They disengaged from the now dead bear, and looked at her warily. "I'm looking for some information, maybe you could help me." She bowed her head and walked closer. "You two wouldn't happen to be sampling the local humans would you?"

"We don't feed from humans." The girl answered. "We're vegetarians."

"Uh sure you are." Ranma smiled to cover up her disgust at what the two had fed from show.

"You have fangs." The tall male noticed.

"I'm not the same as you." She answered snobbishly. "I'm here to investigate the human killings, and remove whoever is doing it." Ranma removed her hands from her pockets and brushed the jacket back to place her hands on her hips. "So if it's not you, I imagine that you know other vampires in the area."

"None of our family feeds from humans." The girl answered Ranma's challenge.

"Sorry but I'll have to intrude on your family. Just to be sure." Ranma crossed her arms to allow her jacket to hide the weapons once again.

"You're not with the Volturi are you?" The man asked.

"Wait a minute, don't tell me." Ranma searched her brain for the answer, having heard it in the briefing. "That's it, they're some kind of group of you that keeps you below the radar of humans. But no, I'm not with them. So if you're done with your－ meal. Would you mind bringing me to see your family?"

X x x x x x

The two vampires brought Ranma to a very large home far from the town. It was four stories with a garage built into the bottom floor. Tall glass windows lined the walls and the entire place screamed big money. Which eliminated the pair stealing their clothing, unless they had taken this home from someone rich.

This mission was turning out to be surprisingly easy. If these vampires were living completely off the local wildlife, and staying away from humans, than they would be unhappy with someone who did. Then again, making the hunt easier would take away the enjoyment of finally finding her target.

"So before we allow you to forcibly make us take you inside, could you at least tell us your name?" The female vampire asked, clearly thinking that Ranma's weapons were not dangerous. Of course they didn't know that the special incendiary rounds she had brought that would light them up like a match from the inside. (1)

"My name's Ranma." She introduced herself.

"Well I'm Alice Cullen and this is Jasper Hale." The tiny vampire introduced the pair.

"Nice to meet you I guess." Ranma really wasn't interested in knowing the names, but Integral would want a full report once this was over. So she would have to remember the names of these vampires if she didn't end up killing them.

The inside of the home was as opulent as the outside. Pausing at a painting that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, she debated on asking where this wealth came from, which would also answer whether or not these vampires had been preying on the local populace.

"This way." The girl called to Ranma while heading up a flight of stairs.

Following, she came upon a spacious living room with a group of four split into two groups. One contained a tall muscular man and an attractive blonde woman, both looked to be in their late teens. The other had another tall man with blond hair, and a brunette woman of average height. This second group looked to be in their early twenties. Ranma noticed that the group all had eyes with a gold tint to them and she wondered if they had all been made by the same vampire.

"I see we have a guest." The blond man smiled pleasantly.

"She says she's looking for the vampires who murdered the humans recently." The girl Alice once again spoke up.

"And I also need to make a decision about all of you." Ranma added. "So if you could tell me how you got this place."

"We've amassed a fortune over the years and bought it." The blond man answered.

Ranma slowly scanned the group of six and found that the man wasn't lying. "And your eating habits? She said that you did not feed from humans."

"That's right, we're vegetarians." The brunette woman spoke up. "We feed on animals not humans."

"Right, I'll just need you to give me some information." Digging into a pocket she pulled out a notepad and pen and handed it to the blond man. "Your name, when you were turned, by who, and who you associate with."

"You're being awfully demanding." The large muscular vampire laughed at her request.

"As I already told her." Ranma jerked a thumb at the small vampire. "I'm not part of your little Volturi group, but who I am with makes it a mission to wipe out all vampires. But if you－ register yourself, and refrain from feeding off humans, then you won't be targeted."

"What group is this?" The blond man asked, clearly understanding that she wasn't just playing a game.

"Hellsing." She answered.

"Based out of England?" He added, likely knowing who she was talking about in some way, or for another reason.

"Yes I have an accent, ha ha." She rolled her eyes wondering why everyone she met in America thought her accent was either cute or decided it was a good idea to ask if she was from England. "And yes we are based in England."

"I'm sorry but we can't give you the information that you want. Secrecy is what protects my family." The blond man gave her back the notepad and pen.

"And you all agree with that?" Ranma briefly held out the notepad and at the lack of response put it back in her pocket. Digging in the inside of her jacket, she summoned up a blood pack she had stored away. "Sorry I didn't eat tonight." She casually removed the top and started to slurp up the red liquid. "Now, I'll let you off the hook this time, but I better not have to come back."

Out of the corner of her eye she caught movement from one of the male vampires, Jasper, as he attempted to get at the blood pack. Without pausing, she sidestepped him and spun on her heel to lightly tab him on the back of the neck with her free hand. He dropped to the floor and skidded to a stop. The vampire didn't remain down, and was quickly back on his feet for another rabid attempt to get at the blood. Casually she planted a foot in his chest and briefly held him in place. He flailed his arms uselessly before shoving her leg to the side.

Sliding backwards, she drew up one of her pistols, and aimed it directly at his forehead. She didn't fire because the rest of the vampires had grabbed their out of control member an instant before she would have set him ablaze. Finishing off her meal, she put the pistol back in its holster.

"Vegetarian huh?" Ranma teased.

"Jasper is new to it, you just surprised him." Alice defended the vampire. "If it wasn't for that blood there wouldn't have been a problem."

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The blond man insisted and Ranma finally decided that he was the leader here, if not the maker of several of them.

"I was already going to leave." Ranma replied casually, spinning to walk towards the steps she had come up.

When Ranma was sure she wasn't visible to any onlookers, she transformed into a bat, and circled the home looking for a place to remain for the day. Finding a window, she flew inside to find a room that looked to be some kind of daytime reading or music listening room, and landed on the bookshelf to the left.

Crawling on all fours, she shifted a book to the side, and hid behind them in the darkest corner she could find. It wouldn't afford her a good sleep, but while here she could listen in to the occupants. Too bad being a bat designed to hang off the ground meant there weren't really any comfortable ways to lay behind the books. So she focused on the conversation echoing through the home. Most of it was vacant nonsense about her and what her presence may mean. There also seemed to be another vampire who was out watching some human girl sleep, and that wasn't creepy at all.

'I hope this room isn't on the side that gets direct sunlight.' She thought while yawning.

X x x x x x

Waking from her fitful sleep, Ranma felt the sun hit her directly as a book was moved. 'Wait, book was moved?' Removing her wings from where they had been held around her head in an attempt to hold off the glare of the sun. With her eyes trying to adjust to the light, she found a plain looking human girl looking down at the book she had just pulled away. Ranma didn't have time to back up behind another book before the girl spotted her.

'Damn!' Ranma cursed though it came out as a small squeak. Simultaneously the human dropped the book with a gasp. With a powerful flap of her wings, Ranma shot out from her hiding spot and past the girl's head towards the window that was still open. She never reached it before a hand snatched her out of the air.

'Lemme go!' She protested this treatment and added a few not so nice insults that came out as a series of squeaks while flapping her wings wildly.

"So do you keep bats around the house?" The human asked.

Ranma quit struggling, realizing that with this form she didn't have the raw strength to break free. The vampire that had caught her was not one that she recognized from before, so he must have been the one off watching a human sleep, which would be the girl that had exposed her hiding spot. 'If this _vegetarian _tries to make a snack out of me he's dead.'

"No, this little guy must have flown in through the window while I was at your house." The vampire released her with a throw towards the window and Ranma quickly flapped away to land up on the roof.

'How didn't he realize what I am?' She wondered, sliding over the edge to hang down she watched the pair. The two were talking awkwardly about music and this lead to them doing an even more awkward dance. As payback for waking her up, she caused the girl to slip, and fall into a stack of cds over a meter high. 'No matter, I better go see if I can get a hold of the local police so they don't go blundering into a hungry vampire.' Yawning, she set off for the town.

The day was thankfully overcast and she found the town quickly. It took even less time to locate the police building. Without caring that humans might see, she reformed as a human directly in front of the building wearing the clothing from last night, minus the two pistols but adding a set of sunglasses.

"Forks Police Department." She read the blue and gold plaque to the left of the doors before entering. Inside it was a generic small town police station, several deputies were working.

"Can I help you?" A pudgy man in uniform asked from behind a nearby desk.

"Yes, I need to speak to the Chief of Police."

"Any particular reason?" The man raised himself up out of his swivel chair to lean over the desk and look down at her. In no mood to deal with some pushy human who had eaten far too many donuts, she commanded him to get the man.

"No reason I want to tell you." Her polite smile left her face as soon as he had lumbered off to find the Chief. Turning around to lean against the desk, she watched some shoppers go by outside the door.

'Why in the world am I up? I should go back to my hotel room and spend the day sleeping in my coffin.' Resolving to do just that once she announced her presence and laid down the law on what was going to happen with the local police.

"You wanted to see me?"

Ranma pushed off with her hips from the desk and addressed a man in forties. He was above average in height, with brown curly hair, and a mustache. "I'm Ranma, you should have been told that I was coming."

"Oh－ right. I'm Charlie Swan." He held out a hand to be shaken.

"I'm dealing with some jet lag at the moment so I just wanted to stop by and make sure I told you some things before getting some sleep. Do you have an office that we could talk in?"

"Uh－ sure." The man nodded twice and led her back into the station to an office in the back. He allowed her to enter first before closing the door behind him, and taking a seat at the desk. "I didn't really think you would be so－ young."

"Age can be deceiving Mr. Swan." Ranma answered with a shrug while noticing a picture on the desk of the Police Chief and a girl Ranma had just had the pleasure of meeting. 'I wonder if this guy knows his daughter his hanging out with those vampires.' She wondered briefly before returning to the task at hand. "So what have you been doing to try and stop the killings?"

"Nothing that's helped. Some hunting parties to find the animal, but."

"Call them off, immediately if you have someone out." Ranma butted in. "You've probably been lucky that you haven't seen anything, if you had, then you would be dead."

"Now wait a minute."

"I'm not very good with bureaucratic stuff, but I have the authority to tell you what to do, and I would rather not have to explain the gory details about what you're dealing with." Ranma didn't need to mentally command the human to do as she wanted; raising her voice was all that was needed.

"Alright, but if we're not hunting this animal, how will we stop it?"

"I'll deal with it." She answered simply.

"How is it that you think that you'll be able to do what a group of men with hunting rifles couldn't do?"

She didn't miss the emphasis that he put on men. "Heh." Ranma closed her eyes and smirked. "Mr. Swan, I'm telling you to quit searching for your own safety." Of course Ranma really didn't care if a bunch of these humans wanted to go out and get slaughtered by actually finding the vampire responsible, it would just look bad for her. "But if you send out another search party, you won't have your job for long."

"At least let me and a couple deputies assist you."

"If you want to assist I just need a ride back to the Olympic Suites Inn. Other than that, you'd just get in the way."

"Fine." The man agreed. "Give me a minute to make sure no one needs me and I'll take you there myself."

"Thanks."

X x x x x x

"Hey Charlie, why are we sitting here?"

"Because Rob, I don't trust her." Charlie Swan answered his deputy Robert Paulson as they sat in an unmarked car across from the room he had dropped the government representative off at. "I mean how is she expecting to catch the animal killing people by herself?"

Fuming, he simply didn't understand how some kid was going to do what his office couldn't. She didn't even look older than his own daughter. Just how did they operate in England and how could they send a kid like that to deal with violent murders like this? There was also something off about her, with pale skin like the Cullen family, and noticeably large eye teeth.

It was dark before any lights came on in the room and another hour before the short redhead exited the room wearing the same clothing from earlier except with a gray shirt on underneath. He also made out the outlines of pistol holsters from an overhead light as she walked across the parking lot towards them.

"That her?" Robert asked.

"That would be her."

"Seems like she's coming towards us." There weren't any lights on in the car, and with no lights nearby, she shouldn't be able to see anything but a dark vehicle.

The red haired teenager casually strolled up to them and knocked on the window. Unsure of how she actually spotted them, he rolled the manual window down. "Yes?" He asked. "You going hunting?" He added with a look down at her thighs briefly before going back up to red eyes. 'I don't think I've ever seen red eyes before'

"Don't make me hunt you." She answered cryptically. "Go home and get some sleep." Slapping the top of the car twice, she strutted off laughing to herself.

"This is all your fault." He turned to Robert who threw up his arms in mock defeat.

"What now?"

Starting up the car he rubbed at his forehead. "Sleep." He repeated the red heads commands, unsure why that suddenly seemed so appealing.

X x x x x x

Ranma arrived at the scene of the most recent murder. The vampires who had done it had no doubt moved on, but that was why she had come here. The scene would be contaminated by so much humans having gone through the area, and the passage of time no matter how short would help erase what she was looking for, but that would be more of a problem to a mortal being.

Changing into a wolf form, she began to sniff around for the vampires scent. Normally she didn't use this form, but for her purposes she needed to be able to keep her nose to the ground, and it was far easier to do it as a wolf than a human. She found it soon enough, the lesser vampires were so shockingly different than the mix of humans, almost sickeningly sweet, more like sugar than anything else.

Trotting off through the woods, the group didn't seem to be trying to hide their trail at all. A dog would have been able to follow these vampires, so why hadn't the human group found them yet? Speeding up, the trail abruptly stopped, and she had to return to the end to sniff around. Sitting on her haunches, she looked around the area, trying to figure out if they had backtracked or something else. Searching around the immediate area to see if they had jumped found nothing.

There was another reason to do this as a wolf besides being closer to the ground; scent became a better source of information, so much so that she could almost see the trail. Similar to how when in bat form, sound was useful for creating a mental map of the surrounding. Heading back to the crime scene, she headed off following another trail. It was older than the other one, and she quickly gave up on it when it became apparent that it was the way they had entered and not the way they had left.

'I'm going to take my time when I finally find them.' She thought darkly after going back to where she had first lost the trail. 'Can they teleport?' It was certainly a possibility, though she had been told these were purely physical vampires without such powers. This did explain why dogs wouldn't have found anything, they would have happily followed the incoming path without considering what the age of the trail meant.

Reforming into a human, Ranma expressed her anger by punching her fist through a tree. Ripping her arm from the hole, needles rained down on her head, and shoulders. There was no way they could have jumped to another spot due to the large trees that surrounded the area being in the way, and she had checked the few directions possible. Shaking her head to clear some of the needles, she paused, and looked up into the giant trees that dominated the landscape.

"That's how." Her smile was sinister as she searched for signs to show where they had jumped up into the trees.

X x x x x x

It was now shortly after five in the morning, and Ranma dropped to hover a meter off the ground before returning to human form. A half hour before her phone had rang, another murder had occurred, and the Police Chief was going to arrive at her hotel to take her there. It was a welcome distraction, searching had been fruitless, it was a group of three vampires, and they had repeatedly split up, gone in different directions, rejoined, split up, and she really just wanted to know if they were directionless like Ryoga had been.

Slipping into her room to get a blood pack from the small fridge that had been brought along, she switched into different clothing consisting of a fresh pair of jeans with a holster slipped into the back to hold one of her pistols, a button up black shirt, and a thick forest green hooded sweatshirt with a half zipper front. Hearing the honk of a car horn, she exited the room to enter Swan's police cruiser.

"How old are you anyways?" The Police Chief asked as they pulled out of the small road the Inn was on, and on to a major one away from town.

"Why do you ask?"

"Sorry, you just don't seem like you're old enough to be a－ what did your office call it?"

"We're called Special Agents, and my age doesn't matter, only ability."

"So why do you dress like you should be in high school in a few hours? Doesn't your office want you to look professional?"

"I dress comfortably." She answered, briefly scanning his mind to see that he was just curious, and she couldn't begrudge him that. Her age and size were an obvious issue when trying to get respect from people who didn't know what she was. Gender also played a part and she was no stranger to being treated differently based on what gender she was. "And wearing a military uniform out in the public makes my job harder."

"Ah." He nodded at that explanation, believing that she was an undercover agent. They turned left off the main road. "If you want some coffee, there's some in the thermos."

"I don't drink coffee."

"Stunt your growth?"

"Can't say I'm worried about that." She didn't have to worry about wrinkles or age, but he didn't need to know that. Although it would be nice to naturally age just a couple years, being the permanent little sister did have its disadvantages.

'These lesser vampires have an advantage on me. They don't sleep, so they can be moving around during the day.' She fumed, all the ground she had covered during the night didn't mean much to a vampire that could keep going indefinitely.

"Any details you want to tell me?" She asked.

"The first body was spotted by a truck driver at about four and the deputy who investigated found another one caught on some bushes in the river. Everything matches the other attacks and obviously no one saw it."

Ranma frowned, there was simply too much area for her to cover on foot to find these vampires. They didn't need to sleep during day and they were smart enough to target humans who were not going to be found for at least a few hours. She wasn't about to spend her nights roaming through the woods hoping to find a good trail or to simply come across her targets. So that meant she would have to use the one solid lead she had, and stick to that.

She saw the lights of two patrol cars on the other side before they passed over a large river, and slowed to a stop. An ambulance was there as well, paramedics were waiting for permission from a man investigating a body next to a park bench near the riverbank to start packing up the bodies. Getting out of the patrol car, she straightened out her hoodie, and headed over to see how these vampires ate.

"I'm sorry miss but this is a crime scene." A policeman stopped her.

Reaching into her back pocket, she pulled out her paperwork and showed it to the man. "I go where I want." Folding up the leather case with her identification, she put it back in her pants, and went past him without a second thought.

"It's fine Larry, she's with me." Charlie patted the man on the shoulder and followed after her. "You sure you want to see this? The other bodies weren't pretty."

"I'm sure I've seen worse." When she saw the first body she had been right. It was all torn up like the vampires had plunged their fingers into the flesh and pulled out large chunks. Crescent shape bite dotted the body, some were just signified by where the teeth had cut in, and others it was like a melon baller had cut into the flesh.

'Pathetic.' She shook her head with disgust. 'It's no wonder these vampires have to feed every other night, half the blood is laying on the ground because they're so berserk.'

Finding that Charlie was expecting for her to add something, she took a moment longer to study the corpse. The other one would look similar but a bit more waterlogged. "It's definitely what I'm looking for－ and more than one, possibly three."

"Any advice?"

"Bag up the bodies, there's nothing to learn from them. I'll also need a ride back into town."

"You don't want to look around?"

"No, they're already gone and I've been up all night and would like to get a couple hours of sleep."

"Sleep isn't a luxury we have here; we got multiple murderers out there if you're right, and we need to find them." Charlie tried to be commanding over her, but Ranma just stared at him impassively.

"They just ate－ a lot, they aren't going to want anything for at least another day, so me getting some sleep isn't going to change a thing. Now drive me back, it's almost morning." She used an authoritative voice again, avoiding use of a mental command.

"Fine, but when you get done with your beauty rest, I want to know what's going on." He demanded.

"If I feel like it."

X x x x x x

Ranma resisted, she fought with all her strength, but in the end the endless ringing of the Alarm clock above her head won in the end. Even though it would be so easy to smash it and go back to sleeping the rest of the day. Not even these lesser vampires had to feed so much that she couldn't enjoy a nice day's sleep. Fumbling around with her hand, she finally hit the button to turn it off. Pushing open the lid of her coffin, she sat up and stared forward blearily, and smacked her lips together a few times.

Standing up in the coffin, she stepped out from behind the bed where it was hidden. Room service was under strict orders not to enter her room. The last thing she wanted was some nosey maid to find a coffin and a fridge full of blood in a room. Dressed in a set of flannel pajamas Ceres had given her, they were black with orange outlined bat figures, and she still couldn't figure out if the blond draculina had done it as a gag or was just being oblivious.

First order of business was breakfast, although it was four in the afternoon, so it was approaching dinner time for humans. While finishing off the blood pack, her mind flashed to the murdered couple from last night, initiating a strong desire to find her own meal. Cold lifeless blood had long since lost any appeal apart from its ability to keep the hunger at bay.

Sliding open the curtains, the sky was cloudy but with enough gaps to let a significant amount of sun through. Glaring at the sky for this affront, she really should have brought along Ceres. At least that way they could take turns being up. Checking her cell phone, she found a message from the Police Chief inviting her to dinner at some diner. "Is it really that hard to tell I don't want to be around you human?" She said to the phone, glaring at the screen.

"And of course he was complaining that I didn't run around wasting time last night. But now he wants me to have dinner with him." Brushing her teeth, she rolled her eyes. "I hope he isn't some old guy who goes after young girls." Her pale skin turned slightly green. "Then again if he knew how useless he was he would leave me alone."

So thirty minutes later she was approaching a small diner, the parking lot was half way full, and it looked busy inside. Dressed in a gray button up shirt covered by a black vest, her pants were black slacks, and she had dark sunglasses covering her sensitive eyes from the harsh glare of the sun. In the parking lot, several high school students were loitering, all wearing sport jackets.

"Woah ho ho." One of the students exclaimed after he noticed her. "You new in town?" He stepped in her way trying to block her path with his larger size.

"Really barking up the wrong tree pal." She answered, shouldering her way past him.

"Hey I was just tryin to be friendly, I just thought a pretty girl like you would like someone to show you round town?"

Ranma froze in her step and closed her eyes before slowly pulling off sunglasses to place in her pocket. "You thought?" She asked, casually turning to stare into the humans eyes. "You don't think." With deliberate steps, she approached him. "You saw a pretty girl and decided to make a pass at me. That wouldn't be so bad if you actually listened when I said no." Ranma finished by poking him in the chest with a finger.

The rest of the teens were snickering at their friend who was now frozen in spot, unable to stop looking into her eyes. "And I know exactly what you were thinking about me." She whispered, her voice oozing disgust. Giving a last poke with her finger, she toppled him to fall to the concrete.

She really hated being able to read minds sometimes. Even being an amoral blood sucking demon, she still found some of the desires of humans when they thought about her body to be sickening. Returning her sunglasses to her nose, she entered the diner, leaving the boy to be ridiculed by his friends.

A dark skinned waitress approached quickly. "Only one?" She asked.

"I'm supposed to meet Mr. Sawn, the Police Chief."

"Over here." Said man's voice called and Ranma saw that he was sitting at a corner table with the girl Ranma recognized from the vampire's home.

"I'll be over to get your order in a second." The waitress was called over to another table.

Sitting down at the table, Ranma brushed some hair out of her face. 'Of course he would have to choose one of the few spots that are getting direct sunlight.' She glowered, keeping her arms out of the sunbeams streaming across the table.

"Looks like you need some more sleep." Charlie was actually concerned. "And are you always so pale?"

"Usually I only work at night, so yes, I'm always this pale." She answered.

"Do you always wear sunglasses too?" The girl asked thinking that she was being funny.

Removing her glasses, she set them on the table to look at the human out of the corner of her eye. "No." It was gratifying to know that her eyes had taken the wind out of the girl's sails. "Sometimes－ people have problems with my eye color." Ranma stressed the word 'people' to see that the girl was putting things together slowly.

"It is unusual." Charlie threw in.

"I like to think it's rare." Ranma smiled toothily, knowing that her type of vampire was a rarity in the world, an endangered species really.

"So what can I get for you?" The waitress from before asked, placing a glass over water in front of Ranma.

"Nothing." Ranma waved her off.

"Alright." The black woman didn't press. "Are you two fine for now?"

"Yes." Mr. Swan answered and the waitress moved off to another table.

"Are you just not hungry or－ do you－ not eat?" The girl asked.

"Bella can you wait five minutes before getting snarky?" Charlie rubbed a hand over his mustache. "This is my daughter Bella, and this is a Special Agent Ranma who's helping with the murders, actually what is your last name?"

"Saotome." She answered.

"But you're so young." Bella brought up. "How are you a－ Special Agent."

"I'm twenty and I have special talents."

To the left of Ranma an older man leaned back on his chair. "Does that mean you know what's killing people?" He asked.

'Keh, eavesdroppers.' Ranma nodded to the man. "Yes I do, but since you're a civilian I can't discuss it with you."

"I haven't even heard the whole story yet Chuck." Charlie told the man. "Perhaps when I'm done eating?"

"Might as well." Ranma shrugged, and settled into her chair to watch a pair of humans eat.

X x x x x x

Ranma let Charlie enter into his office in the police station before she purposely shut the door to lean against it. The man's daughter had left in a beat up old red truck, and Ranma would have to track her down after this.

"I'll explain this as simply as a can." Ranma started, moving from the door to stand in front of the desk. "What kind of bite marks did you see on the bodies?"

"The forensics team said some resembled human ones." Mr. Swan answered. "But they were wrong, more like blades."

"They are right about that. What you're looking for only looks like a human." Ranma paused. "I could go into more detail but they are vampires."

"That's ridiculous." Mr. Swan scoffed at her explanation. "Vampires don't exist."

"They do." Holding up her right index finger and morphed it to be twice as long, completely black with a sharp underside, and ending at a sharp point. "Normal guns will be useless against them, you can't fight them physically, humans are for all purposes useless in this fight."

Charlie stuttered, staring at her altered finger. "How－ what－ I don't."

"I'm a monster that hunts other monsters, Mr. Swan. There are at least three vampires who are making a buffet of your town. I have some leads that I need to follow up on, but I can't do that if I keep having you BUTTING into my business." Ranma pressed her finger into the top of the desk, easily pushing into the wood while her eyes glowed a soft red.

"What are you?" He stammered.

"Isn't it obvious?" She showed off her fangs with a large smile. "I'm a vampire as well. Forget any kind of fiction you may have read. We're real and my organization has worked long and hard to make sure that humans like you live happy little lives thinking you're the top of the food chain."

"Say－ say I believe you." The man was so frightened that Ranma reformed her finger and took a step away. "What happens since you told me?" Ranma smiled, having used just enough of a mental command to force him to accept vampires.

"You keep quiet, nobody would believe you anyways. This type of vampire specifically has a－ ruling body that would have you killed or made into one of them if you knew and started talking. Because of this, I'll need to talk to your daughter after this."

"Bella? What does she have to do with this?" Charlie started to move past shocked acceptance and towards being able to work with this information.

"She's involved with one of these vampires who are living outside of town. They claim to only feed off non-humans, but you saw the bodies, they don't have control. Any blood might set them off into a frenzy."

"The Cullens? But that doesn't make any sense. Carlisle is a doctor, I've seen him work around blood. All his kids go to school and are around people all day."

"Then you've been very lucky that one of them hasn't slipped up and caused a massacre."

"I should call her." He reached for a phone on his desk and Ranma placed a hand on his to stop him.

"No, you'll keep the secret. You don't know if one of them is there listening, and that may force their hand." She explained calmly, removing her hand. "They would kill her or she would become one." She repeated her earlier comment.

"I'm not going to just sit by while my daughter is put in danger." Charlie said firmly, clearly resolved to protect his child.

"Then let's go to your house." Ranma suggested, if the girl's vampire friend was there she could either kill him or use him. It probably wasn't very nice for her to use the teen as bait, but then again, she wasn't very nice.

X x x x x x

"I'm hard to break, but you should probably worry about the speed limit." Ranma commented at Charlie drove his cruiser nearly twice the posted speed limit. "Just a suggestion."

"If you wanted me to be calm you shouldn't have told me my daughter might be hanging out with a monster." While making this declaration, the human did slow down and look over at her. "When did you change clothes?"

"I said I have many talents." She answered, leaning back in the seat. Ranma was now dressed in her long black jacket, one pistol was holstered at the back of her blue jeans, and she had on a green turtleneck.

"So why am I supposed to trust you, aren't you a vampire as well?"

"I'm not the same kind."

"And now on top of vampires existing you're going to tell me that there are different types?"

"Yes, and you can quit being so hysterical about it." She snorted. "How do you think I felt when I first found out?" Ranma asked rhetorically.

"How should I know?" He called her on the question.

"Man you humans always think it's bad when you find out that there are vampires." Shaking her head, she knew humans were self-obsessed but it always came out when finding out about the supernatural world. "I woke up surviving off blood, you think that's good or bad way to wake up?"

"Umm－ not good?"

"I didn't even remember it happening and it was so hard to remember being human." Ranma stared out of the windshield without focusing on anything. "Then I had to leave my family and move halfway across the world, followed by months to deal with the changes."

"I－ had no idea."

"So forgive me if I don't care too much about your mental state." Ranma glared darkly at the man through her sunglasses. The human didn't answer her and he was actually feeling sorry for her.

"We're here." He informed her as they pulled into the driveway of a two story white house. A familiar old red truck was also parked in the driveway. "What do you want me to do?"

"Just a second." Scanning the home with her extra senses, she found Swan's daughter in an upstairs room, and a vampire there as well. "Don't do anything but there is one here."

"How can you tell?"

"Again, I have many talents." Opening up the car door, she shut it without trying to hide the noise. Motioning with her hand, Charlie also got out of the vehicle. "I just need you to stay out of the way, find a spot to sit down in the bottom floor." Reaching into her jacket she grabbed her other pistol, and handed it to him. "You probably won't need it."

"I already have a pistol and if I can get inside I have a double barrel shotgun."

"Wouldn't matter, that has special explosive rounds that will set him on fire. At which point you would really want to run. So just try and stay out of it if something happens." Skipping up the steps, she opened the door.

"Um." Charlie followed her in. "I'm home!" He called up the steps.

"Alright!" Bella's voice called back.

With one last nervous glance, Charlie headed off away from the steps. Sneaking up the steps with a few silent hops, Ranma finally made noise by her shoes knocking on the wood floor. She didn't even knock on the door to Bella's room before entering. As expected, the vampire had realized that two people had entered, and was waiting for her. The teenager was back behind the vampire and using him as a shield.

"Can't stay away from your meal can you?" Ranma smirked. "Does it make the kill better for you? Or do you just like to have that smell in your nose all the time?"

"You're the one that came to the house." The vampire didn't seem threatened by Ranma but he was not relaxed.

"I have to admit it is a nice house." Ranma shifted casually to put her weight on one leg and removed her sunglasses. The room was dark, with only two lights within paper lanterns for illumination.

"Red eyes, you feed from humans." The male vampire commented right away. Ranma smirked, noticing that the vampire had a gold ring to his eyes.

"I have red eyes because that's what my Sire had. But yes I occasionally splurge on a human. I'm sure you've had your share." Ranma caught the wince from the other vampire. "There are a few things I want to know from you."

Ranma didn't have time to start asking questions before the vampire had shot across the room and grabbed her by the throat. Bring up her right arm, her fingers turned into blades, and she slashed at his arm with enough force to nearly cut through the limb in five spots. He hissed and released her to dart across the room to grab the girl and place her on his back before breaking through the window.

Shaking her head, Ranma followed the pair, and let her hand resume its prior shape. Unhindered by a human cargo, she easily kept up with the vampire who appeared to be concerned for the human. "I just wanted to talk." She told him, appearing at his side. "But I'm having thoughts about doing something else." The vampire slid to a stop and Ranma slammed on her own brakes briefly before bouncing several times to dissipate her speed.

"Bella stay behind me." The vampire told the girl, getting into an aggressive crouch.

"Now you're just being ridiculous." Ranma ran a hand through her hair. She could see the other vampires arm healing up from the attack like cracks in stone coming back together. "Really if you want to fight, just to let you know, I'm not going to hold back."

"Edward wait." Bella begged the vampire, grabbing on to his injured arm. "Maybe you don't have to fight."

"I'd listen to her." Ranma point towards the girl.

"Quiet Bella you don't understand, she threatened my family, and she'll probably kill you just for knowing." Edward pushed Bella away.

"I'm just here to get the vampires that are killing humans." Ranma held up both hands with the palms facing the vampire. "If that isn't you Mr. Gold Eyes, I'm not going to kill you unless you make me, or you put me in a situation where I think that's a good idea."

Hearing twigs snapping and other noises that usually accompanied people running through a forest, Ranma glanced towards the nearby woods to see a group of five semi familiar vampires appear at the edge of the yard. "So you aren't just all flesh and bone." She mused, assuming that he had sent out some kind of mental call to the rest of his friends back at that house in the woods. Glancing back in the other direction, she noticed that Charlie had grabbed a rifle, clearly forgetting what she had said about those being worthless.

"Bella get over here right now." Charlie demanded, storming out the back door of his house with his rifle ready.

"Dad wait!" Bella took off towards her father in a jog. "This isn't want it looks like." Edward followed after her until Charlie pointed his rifle at him.

"Stay away from my daughter vampire." The man demanded. Ranma could feel the murderous intent from the vampire and the possessive attitude he had.

Ranma reached Edward before he could attack Charlie and grabbed on to his shoulder. Kicking in the back of his knee, she pulled him down towards the ground with enough force to make a deep indent in the grass. Planting a foot on Edward's neck she held him in place with his legs trapped beneath him.

Turning to Charlie, she narrowed her eyes. "Get back inside and take her with you." He nodded and forced the struggling Bella towards the home.

Before the two were inside, Ranma was surrounded by the family of vampires. 'Damn they are pretty quick.' She thought before she was pulled from Edward by the big muscular one who threw her across the grass. Landing on her back, she slid briefly before rolling backwards, and up to her feet in a crouch. A manic smile spread across her face, looking forward to fighting these lesser vampires. They weren't slouches when it came to strength and speed and she was interested in seeing what other surprises there might be.

"You shouldn't have involved him." The blond female said in a huff. "Don't you realize what you've done?"

Standing up to her full height, she straightened out her jacket. "Don't act like you care what happens to humans." She gave off a brief derisive laugh. Glancing towards the house, she saw that Charlie and Bella were finally inside. "I don't much care for your rules and personally－ I'd much rather not have to hide."

"Why did you tell him?" Edward snarled, storming towards her.

"Cause he asked." She answered, staring him down as he came up close to tower over her. Ranma could feel the anger rolling off the lesser vampire.

"You're trying to take her from me!" He gave off an inarticulate cry of rage and attempted to punch her in the face. Leaning backwards at the waist, his attack missed, and she straightened up in time with his fist receding.

"I got nothing against vampire human relations." Ranma smirked catching the rest of the vampires moving up to flank Edward, and the brunette female step between them.

"All this is unneeded." The woman put a hand on Edward's cheek. "Calm down, she's trying to provoke you." Ranma raised her right hand and held her index finger slightly away from her thumb. Edward stared at her with a look of complete hatred.

"So how did you all know to track down loverboy?" Ranma was interested in that. This seemed like more than coincidence for them to all be assembled here at just the right time.

"Before I saw that a vampire you're tracking would decide to hunt Bella." Alice, the short vampire supplied. "But then it changed when you told her father about vampires, and now you'll meet their group with us tomorrow."

"See the future kind of stuff?" Ranma was impressed. Sometimes she got feelings about the future but Ceres could occasionally see real visions.

"We want to help you deal with them." The big muscular one added.

"After that we want you to leave." The blonde finished.

Ranma being charged up and ready for a good fight stared at the woman defiantly while debating her options. The obvious one was to simply kill them all and finish her job without their help. She wanted that one the most. Then again, this was what she had been hoping to get here, extra eyes that didn't have to sleep.

"Can't you just tell me where they are then?" Ranma asked Alice trying to force herself to a calm state of mind.

"We will by taking you there tomorrow."

"I guess I'll work with you then." Ranma shrugged casually. "But isn't there one more of you?"

"Carlisle is at work and couldn't come." The brunette answered.

"Midday, ugh－ why can't it be midnight?" Ranma looked up to the sky to be briefly blinded by the sun. "Deal, I'll come to your home sometime in the night."

"Deal." Alice shot back.

"I need to go talk to Bella." Edward said and immediately set off for the house.

"You should listen to the girl's father." Ranma sprinted past the vampire. The look on his face that she once again got between him and the girl was not a happy one.

"She's old enough to make her own decisions." He growled.

"I'm going in there to discuss things with my－ coworker, who isn't too fond of you right now. So if you're really interested in that girl. You're going to head back with your friends." Ranma pointed towards the group who was poised for another altercation. Edward stared at her again with complete hatred. She could bathe in the jealousy and rage that was rolling off of him.

"Fine." He spat, running off towards the woods with the rest of his group.

Ranma shook her head. "I may have to kill them just for being so annoying."

Charlie opened the door for her as she entered; Bella was behind him, her eyes slightly red from tears. "They gone?" He asked.

"For now." Ranma answered with a shrug, earning a slap from the girl.

"Who are you to stop me from seeing Edward?" Bella demanded.

"Bella go sit down in the front room." Mr. Swan ordered.

"No dad, who is she to－."

"I said sit down in the front room." Charlie said firmly. Bella looked at her father like she wanted to complain more before going into the front room with a huff.

"Did you forget what I told you?" Ranma looked at the father like he was an idiot. "Where's the gun I gave you?"

"It's right here." Charlie walked away to the front room and grabbed the pistol sitting on a table to give to her.

"You better forget about vampires or you're going to be dead in about five minutes." Ranma placed the weapon in a pocket. Without asking for permission, she sat down on a reclining chair, and kicked her legs out. "This place got a basement? I'd like to get some sleep."

"I'm going to need a drink." Charlie ignored her question to head for the kitchen. "Maybe more than one." Ranma tracked the man till he was out of sight.

"And I suppose you want to become one of them." Ranma ignored the death glare she was receiving. She didn't even need to read the girl's mind to see what the girl was after.

"So－ so what if I do?" She squirmed in her seat uncomfortably.

"I think you're the first human I ever met who wanted to be turned." Ranma cocked her head to the side. "All your friends out there may look pretty, may claim to only eat animal blood, as if it makes them better. But deep down－ what makes them tick－ what drives everything they do, is to kill." Ranma looked wistfully off straight ahead, her fangs even seemed to tingle a bit at the thought.

Hitting the lever to recline the chair, she stretched herself out. "I should get me one of these. Need some black out curtains for here though." Briefly Ranma scanned to see what Charlie was doing and found that he was still busy in the kitchen. "What are you sixteen? Seventeen?"

"I－ I'm almost eighteen."

"Almost the same time I was turned. When I had the choice made for me." Ranma didn't particularly think that there was a choice the night she was turned. Life or death was not a choice.

"You're just－ trying to get me to stop seeing him." Bella had a strange way of pausing midsentence and Ranma smirked at her self-centered attitude. Little of what Ranma had said was absorbed by the girl, who seemed hopelessly dedicated to Edward. It could be that Edward use mental powers to wrap the girl around his finger, but Ranma didn't believe that to be the case.

Charlie returned with a can of beer and sat down next to his daughter. "How could you be so irresponsible?" Somehow the human hadn't heard about Bella's desire to be a vampire, too engrossed in satisfying his own urge to escape with alcohol.

"Dad you don't understand. Edward's different, he loves me, and he would never do anything to hurt me." The girl said with complete seriousness. Ranma didn't think she was lying, from Bella's point of view, Edward probably did love her.

"So do you have a basement? Or someplace where the sun doesn't reach?" Ranma asked the Police Chief. She didn't care if this girl wanted to get turned into a vampire, she didn't care if she wanted to risk her life for a relationship with a type of vampire who could barely control themselves. The sun wouldn't be down for a few more hours and she wanted to make up for lost sleep.

"There's a guest room upstairs." Charlie took a long drink from his beer. "I'll show you where."

"Thanks." She followed him up the steps and to a room with dust on most of the furniture.

"Sorry, the last time someone stayed here was a few years ago, and I'm not a great house keeper."

Drawing the shades closed and being satisfied she threw back the covers on the twin bed. "I'll live." She joked to herself.

"Thanks－ ya know－ for protecting my daughter."

"Don't thank me." Ranma took off her jacket to hang on the endboard. "I really don't care what happens to her." About to get in and pull the covers up over her head, Ranma heard a truck engine come to life right outside the home.

"Bella!" Charlie ran from the room.

Ranma waited, rubbing at her temples. 'Please tell me she didn't run away. Please tell me she didn't run away.' The frantic footsteps running back up the steps told her what she needed to know.

"Bella just drove off." Charlie informed her.

"Unbelievable." She said through the fabric.

X x x x x x

Ranma was not happy.

Normally this was not a terribly bad thing, she was a reasonable vampire, and venting her frustration on unsuspecting or even suspecting humans was not something she would normally consider. Having caught up with the red truck of Bella Swan by flying as a bat, she had reformed to sit with her back against the cab in a cross legged position with her arms crossed. Now she was thinking seriously about eating the girl.

It had been a chore to convince Mr. Swan not to go off in pursuit. She could understand him being worried about his daughter, and how it was hard to realize just how useless he was, but she couldn't be dealing with that on top of everything else.

Closing her eyes, she stretched out with her mind, focusing on the engine and its many parts. Tracing Bella's foot to the accelerator, she followed it to a weak point, and broke it. Bella cursed and tried to pump the pedal before finally being forced to the side of the road. The human girl got out and slammed the door shut to lean against the side. Bella had been driving down a private road that must lead up to the Cullen's home, so no cars would be coming by soon.

"Problems?" Ranma startled the girl and then chuckled. Hopping over the side of the truck bed, she landed lightly to face the taller female. "Don't you care about your dad?"

"Don't bring him into this. You wouldn't understand. Me and Edward－ we need each other." Bella took several steps back.

"You can't spend a day away from him?" Ranma looked at the human with disgust. "I know people like you, it's not healthy." She was being unfair to Ukyo and Shampoo, they may have loved her at one point, but they weren't dependent on her, and they both had lives that kept them from regularly interacting with her. Honestly Akane had been more dependent than either of those two.

Ranma stared right into the girl's eyes and took a single step towards her. "At first you were a curiosity." Bella took a step away and Ranma took another forward. "Humans and vampires being together isn't that strange and I would actually hope it works out." Ranma narrowed her eyes. "But you have no clue of the world you're playing in because you think it's exciting."

"I love him." Bella defended herself.

"Do you really?" Ranma snapped her hand forward and grabbed Bella back the back of her hair and dragged her down to be beneath Ranma's eye level. "You have a stupid way of showing it!" Baring her fangs, she squeezed too tightly.

"St- stop it, you're hurting me!" Bella pleaded.

"Listen you stupid human. I'm here to hunt down and kill off vampires who are a threat to people. You are making him a threat." Releasing the girl, she fell to the dirt road with a pained yelp. Reaching into her pocket, Ranma pulled out her cell phone. "What's your home number?"

"Edward will kill you for touching me." Bella spit on Ranma's jacket. For a brief moment her eyes glowed before she got herself under control.

"What is your home phone number?" Ranma commanded, staring deeply into the girl's eyes. There was a brief struggle but Bella gave it to her quickly enough. "Charlie, your daughter's truck is stalled out on the road to the Cullen's house. A bolt holding the gas pedal to something else has come loose. Shouldn't be that hard to fix. But you should come and pick Bella up." Without waiting for a response, she ended the call.

"Stop trying to tell me what to do!" Bella succeeded in punching her in the nose. Ranma allowed the cartilage to be broken. When Bella's fist was pulled away and she could see the damage, Ranma simply healed it back to new.

"If you do that again, you'll find out what becoming a real vampire's meal is like." Ranma said evenly and without emotion. She gave Bella no time to complain before she knocked the girl out with a well-placed hit to the head. Catching the girl's before it could fall to the ground like a ragdoll, she shoved her roughly in the truck.

That done, Ranma started off down the road at a leisurely pace, and pulled out her cell phone to check in. "Hey Walter." She greeted the butler.

"Ah Tiger Lily, are you calling to confirm removal of the target?"

"Not yet, there's a group of vampires here who I'm checking out. They aren't the ones feeding off people apparently; they think they're vegetarians because they feed off bears and stuff. I forgot what type they're supposed to be, but they don't sleep, don't have fangs, and have reflective skin."

"Acknowledged, how many are there?"

"Five of the vegetarian ones and three that are feeding from humans; all the same type."

"I'll talk to Nana and see what she wants to do. Expect a call within the hour."

"Right-o." She ended the call. (1)

X x x x x x

She didn't even get to knock before the small vampire Alice met her at the door. It would be interesting to find out what the limits of their senses were and what other special abilities they may have. Again the question of how similar and how different they were came up in her mind. There were so few of her type of vampire, that she was intensely curious about the others.

What little contact she had with this type had soured her to the entire experience. Like most types they were barely controlled animals, having no concept of what the taking of blood meant. Then there was the arrogance to call themselves vegetarians. As far as she was concerned, that was claiming eating a chicken was different than a cow or any number of animals. Which in her mind was being a complete hypocrite.

"We weren't really expecting you till later." Alice seemed reserved about this.

"Not much else to do around here at this time of night. I'm sure the humans will go off to a bar, stay home and watch television. There isn't much for a vampire to enjoy." Ranma answered with a shrug.

"Ah, well come in, we were just watching the news."

Ranma deposited her tennis shoes next to the doorway inside, since she wasn't planning a fight or to leave soon, she thought it only polite.

"You didn't have to take them off."

"Just a habit from my human life." She answered.

"Hmm, you sound like you're from the UK but you don't look it."

Ranma scrunched up her face in thought as she walked with the shorter female through the home, wondering just how much she wanted to tell them. "Japan is my real home, but the city of fog has grown on me." She altered her face to look Caucasian while Alice was looking.

"How did you do that?" The girl seemed amazed at the talent and they stopped.

"I'm a natural shape shifter." She quickly changed into a male the same height. "Form means little to us."

"That's incredible."

'Heh, she'd probably be more amazed that this is what I should really be.' Ranma smirked and went back to her eternal body. "I take it none of you have such an ability."

"No, none of us can do that."

"What can you do?" Ranma twisted her head to one side. "Physical strengths, heightened senses, and your ability to predict things? Is that it? Oops I forgot, you all have permanent body glitter and you don't sleep."

"If you're trying to provoke me it's not going to work." Alice shook her head, taking Ranma's teasing well.

"I'm just trying to find out more. What's it like not to sleep? Don't you get really really bored?"

"You find ways to pass the time."

"Yes, you do." The eldest most vampire butted in as he walked down the steps. "Alice would you mind giving us some time alone?"

"Of course." The petite girl did a polite bow before hopping nimbly up the steps.

"I don't think we've been properly introduced yet. I'm Carlisle Cullen. I hope we can move past any unpleasantry and resolve this situation."

"Unpleasantry? It's been kind of fun." Ranma answered. "Little bit annoying too."

"My son Edward is rather unhappy with you. Please try not to provoke him further, he is deeply involved with Ms. Swan. As we all are. She is family－ and we protect family."

"So when do you plan to turn her?" Ranma doubted that any group of vampires would have a human in their midst for long.

"That's Bella's choice if she wishes to become a vampire. Personally I would prefer that she remain human and be spared the pain of the change."

Ranma was about to point out that life with vampires was one that ended up taking the choice away from humans, but her phone vibrated in her pocket. "Just a sec." Seeing that it was Walter, she flipped it open. "Yea?"

"Tiger Lily, you are to eliminate all targets."

"Alright." Ranma replied resolutely. "Walter do you have to use that Peter Pan stuff?"

"We are supposed to be using code names when contacting each other."

"Fine." She grumbled, snapping the phone shut.

"Are we－ targets?" Carlisle asked seriously, his body tensed.

"No." Ranma lied, needing them to meet up with three she had been originally sent here to deal with. "Only the ones preying on humans are targets."

X x x x x x

Ranma did not stay around the vampire group, or as they said, coven. She found a seat in an empty room and simply relaxed herself. By doing so she ended up appearing for all purposes dead. She thought of it as zoning out because literally she didn't think, didn't breath, and didn't even react to outside stimuli if she was really deep into it. When coming out of this state she almost felt better than sleeping.

Her body was surprisingly empty for a vampire. By taking blood from humans, a vampire took their soul and made them into familiars but she always removed the ones she took. But not one, one very special soul had been kept. She had even provided this soul with his own special place, a kingdom of pain that would last for as long as she existed.

Creating the mental construct had been easy and like always, Luke Valentine was waiting for her to visit. Within the construct she was an actual physical representation and she stopped the never ending horde of cats that were tearing into his flesh. The tiger sized housecats fell away into darkness till only their eyes were visible. Luke quivered from where he lay on the dirt floor of the pit, his body naked but the damage inflicted by the cats was always healed before the next cut and bite. She hadn't dominated Luke's mind, he was exactly as he was while alive, a mind within her mind.

"Are you having fun yet?" She asked, placing her hands on her hips, and leaning over him. Luke begged and pleaded with her to stop it, to kill him, and free him from the never ending nightmare. Kicking him roughly across the pit to slide into the wall, Ranma laughed cruelly. "Maybe in a few more decades. Then－ maybe it'll end."

Ordering the cats to attack again, Ranma watched momentarily as large chunks of flesh were ripped from Luke's body only to be replaced before the meat had hit the ground. She had found a cure for the fear of cats by giving it all to him. Honestly she should thank Luke for that blessing.

Vanishing from her hidden world, she was freed to feel the outside one again, and felt someone nudge at her left shoulder; she slowly came back to herself. Her eyes opened up to see the pretty blonde vampire standing over her. Blinking, she rubbed at her red eyes and sat up on the daybed she had been laying on. Glancing at an ornate clock sitting on a table, she found that it had been five hours.

"Yes?" Ranma asked slowly, briefly checking out the expensive clothing the vampire was wearing, and feeling a bit underdressed while waiting with this group.

"Why are you really here?" She asked snootily.

"Well it's either hang around with a human who is getting on my nerves, or get on yours." Ranma smirked. It was clear that she was causing considerable anxiety among the group. "So why did you－ wake me?"

"I didn't know there were other types of vampires. So I want to know more."

"Like?" Ranma picked up her feet to sit crosslegged on the daybed, deciding to indulge the other female.

"Are you able to be human again?"

"No, I'm even less of a human or living being than you are." Which was true, she was power given form, they were form given power.

"Are you able to have children?"

Ranma raised an eyebrow at the question and the seeming special significance she felt coming off the girl. "In－ a way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You don't have special connections to your Sire?" She was confused. Nearly every type of vampire that she knew of had strong parental connections to any fledgling.

"No, in fact I hated Carlisle after he turned me." The girl waved her hands for her to scoot over so she could sit down, and Ranma complied.

"That's too bad." Ranma really did feel bad about that, to go through such a dramatic change, and hate the one who did it to you would be horrible. "I can only talk about it from the fledgling standpoint, but I feel closer to my Sire than I ever did to my human family. He's my father, mother, and sibling all at once. It just has to be similar for him." She smiled wistfully thinking about how fun it would have been if Alucard had come along.

"If it wasn't for Edward's human we could go back to being a family again." The girl said suggestively.

"What's your name anyways?"

"Rosalie Hale."

"Well Rosalie, are you asking for me to do something about her?" Ranma kept her voice low, knowing that even in such a big house, an attentive vampire would be able to hear.

"She's putting us all at risk."

"Don't worry." Ranma smiled reassuringly. "After tomorrow she'll be a non-issue."

X x x x x x

"You're going to play baseball?" Ranma looked at the vampire group doubtfully. They had all dressed in variations on a baseball uniform, making them look like some demented undead baseball team.

"Alice says that's what we were doing when the rogues show up." Carlisle answered.

"So are you doing it because she said so or because you were already planning to?" Ranma wondered if those visions were self-fulfilling ones.

"Little bit of both." The muscular Emmet answered, twisting his baseball cap so it sat sideways on his head.

"We had planned for Bella to join us." Edward continued to glare at her.

"Edward." Carlisle chastised.

"We only get to play when there's a thunderstorm." Alice switched back to the conversation at hand. "So we try not to waste it, for any reason."

"That seems just a bit weird." Ranma didn't see how hitting a ball with a bat could be that noisy. It was like when she fought Ryoga after the breaking point training, after a certain point; you just couldn't impart that much force on a freely moving object. Although having never played sports since becoming a vampire, it might be true, but unlikely.

Since it was nearly noon, she wasn't interested in thinking about the physics behind vampires playing baseball or even talking. Sleep was what she wanted even though she wasn't about to get it. Ranma allowed them to lead the way to where they were going to play by a short run through the forest. Mistakenly she had not brought any blood with her the night before so she was hungry as well.

"When are they going to be here?" She asked Alice while glancing around the abandoned field. There was a baseball diamond barely visible through the grass, and signs that it was once used for more than just a casual game if the bleacher frame lacking wooden seats was any indication.

"They'll hear us playing." Alice answered.

"I'll just be over here taking a nap." Behind where home plate would be, she sat down to lean against a tree. "Wake me when they show up." Buttoning up her jacket to cover more of her body, even though the sun was covered by thick black clouds, she decided that she should find a hat for instances like this.

The fierce crack of thunder and brief flash of bright light made her jerk out of her drowsy state. Crossing her arms grumpily, she watched the vampires begin to play baseball. The bat hitting the ball was loud, but nothing past a small caliper rifle round. All this fuss over having to play in a thunderstorm must be a problem with not being able to tone down their senses like she could.

Looking through half lidded eyes, she analyzed their strengths. Edward was very fast and she didn't think she could actually catch him in a foot race. Emmet would likely be very strong just by nature of his build. None of the females seemed to be particularly strong in either strength or speed, Rosalie couldn't even make it around the small diamond before Edward had chased down the ball she had hit from deep in the forest beyond the field, and thrown it to home. Alice was pitching and should be able to throw the ball hard enough that no one could hit it, but Rosalie, Carlisle, and then Emmet hit the ball on the first pitch.

Trying to decide on which one to deal with first, Alice floundered with her next pitch, and the ball didn't even get halfway to the batter. The tiny vampire stared blankly forward for a moment before turning to lock on a trio coming out of the forest in center field. The trio consisted of two men and one woman. The Cullen coven quickly gathered around Alice to face the new comers.

"Finally." A toothy grin spread over Ranma's face. Climbing to her feet, she patted off some of the grass that had stuck to her back, and trotted off across the field to stop them next to second base. "I take it you're the ones who have been hunting the humans?" Ranma asked rhetorically, her eyes scanning the trio. Details like clothing were discarded, she was judging them based off non-physical features, the man on the left with blond hair in a ponytail had something about him, as well as the woman with bright red hair nearly a match for Ranma's own.

"If we've been causing problems, we're just passing through." The middle man, who had a darker but still very pale complexion replied with a slight French accent to his English.

"Heh, you did enough that I had to come here." Ranma had decided that it would be the woman first. No reason really but Ranma felt that she would be the most trouble if she had escaped.

"I see no pendant; you are not with the Volturi." The middle one looked at her with unease.

"I'm with someone worse." Pulling out a pistol with her right hand from underneath her jacket, the trio tensed, and then scattered when she fired off three shots at the female.

Only one bullet grazed her arm but it was enough to ignite her entire left arm down from the shoulder. As the woman screamed in pain, she had to stop moving to put out the flames, this allowed Ranma to close the four meter distance in a single jump. Drawing her left hand across her body, there was a brief moment of eye contact with the vampire that was suddenly ended when she cut roughly through her head where her jaw met the skull.

Before the broken skull could hit the ground, Ranma had to crouch under an attack from behind by the male vampire with the ponytail. Planting her hands on the ground, she rotated up into a handstand to kick him underneath his chin. Still turning she pushed off with her hands to flip up to her feet. Looking over her shoulder with a cocky grin, Ranma found that she had nearly shattered the vampire's jaw, the skin appearing to be cracked stone and not flesh.

He ignored the injury to swipe at her with his fingers curled like claws. Ranma was overconfident and was clipped several times while weaving around his attacks, tearing through her clothes and partially into her flesh. Ignoring her own damage, she didn't return any attacks, choosing to fire several bullets into the female's body lighting it on fire as if coated by gasoline. He screamed in rage and overextended his right arm. Catching his wrist, she twisted till the back was facing her, then struck with her free hand with the intent to break it at the elbow, but in the end snapped it off completely.

"Oopsies." Ranma exclaimed in a cutesy voice as the vampire backed away several steps while staring incredulously at his severed limb. "Here you go." Shooting forward, Ranma gripped the arm firmly, and hit him in side of the head. "Why are you hitting yourself?" She remarked snidely, striking him directly in the nose.

Dropping the arm that had broken in several places from the force, she plunged her hand through his chest and spine. "I know this won't kill you." She commented, holding his body up. "But it'll stop you from jumping around won't it?" With a quick jerk, she pulled her arm free, and he dropped to the ground in a heap. The wound was already healing, so she quickly put several bullets into him to finish off her magazine, and make him explode into flames like the woman had.

Hitting the magazine release, she slapped another one in, and chambered the round. "Not going to help your friends?" She asked, her red eyes shifting to the darker skinned one who had remained off to the side, he hadn't even ran to safety.

"They were not my friends." He answered. "And I have no desire to fight－ whatever you are. I just want to leave without being hunted."

"You're pretty smart." Ranma ignored him to pick up the severed head that glared angrily at her. "In ya go." She joked to herself and tossed the woman's head into the fire with the rest of her body.

"I have not survived by making enemies, words are far better than swords."

"You're probably showing your age." Ranma imagined that sometime in the future she may let slip some slang that would be incomprehensible to whoever heard it. "Why should I let you live?" If he did actually give a good reason she might be inclined to do just that, however it would have to be a very good reason at this point. She was hungry and wanted to see what these vampires tasted like.

"I'm not into politics, I'm just a survivor. Allow me to leave and I will vanish. There is nothing else I could promise."

"You're honest at least." Ranma locked eyes with the vampire. There were no mental defenses to break and she wrapped her mental powers around his mind. She now knew his name to be Laurent, he had been traveling with the other two vampires who had been a couple, and they were most certainly the ones she had been sent to find. "But that's not good enough." To Laurent, the world fell away into blackness except for her.

"Wh－ what's going on?" He backed away, looking around the dark world in fright.

"The humans you killed, did you play with them?" Her voice reverberated within Laurent's skull, the echo growing rather than dying away. To the outside observers, the vampire was reacting to nothing but the sound of her voice as she slowly walked across the grass towards him. Behind her, the burning bodies of the vampires crackled and popped as they were consumed.

"No, that was James and Victoria!" He protested, clutching the side of his head.

"I'm sure you were innocent." Ranma chuckled darkly. "An innocent vampire." It was so easy to dominate this vampires mind that she quickly destroyed his it under the verbal and visual assault. With a pained scream, he collapsed to his knees to stare blankly forward. "Pathetic." She spat, twisting his head to one side.

"Let's see if you at least taste good." Her teeth altered into a mouthful of fangs, and she plunged them into his jugular. No liquid immediately filled her mouth and she had to draw it out herself. What did come immediately made her gag and she released his neck to throw up the foul tasting fluid. "Yeuck." She slurred, her tongue hanging from her mouth. (2)

'Well that was a－ weird experience.' She spit several times to clear away the last traces of the taste. 'Didn't even know a vampire could throw up.' Putting some distance between her and the comatose Laurent who had not reacted to the bite in the slightest, she put several bullets into his chest, causing him to catch on fire.

Glancing up to the threatening clouds when another flash of lightning hurt her eyes, Ranma wondered when the rain would start, and if it would be hard enough to stop the three fires. Cracking her neck, she turned to face the Cullens. There were the expected looks of revulsion that she had just sampled the local cuisine. None of them seemed particularly horrified at the deaths of three vampires, but they were worried about the ease with which she had done it.

Putting the pistol back in its holster, she brushed imaginary dirt from her hands, and addressed the group. "Well that was hardly worth the time I spent here." She joked. "Yo Alice, I got a job offer for you. Come work for Hellsing, with that vision thing you have, you'd be able to stop bad guys before they even started, and you can have all the blood you want from local blood banks, even the occasional human if you wanted."

"No, I wouldn't want to help do what you do." The tiny vampire answered her eyes glazing over like when she had a vision earlier.

"That's too bad." Ranma took a deep and unneeded breath. "That's really too bad."

"Get away from her!" Alice yelled.

Throwing her hand forward, Ranma's fingers all altered into pitch black talons, and extended in a flash to plunge through Alice's chest from close to five meters away. The small vampire was frozen in horror, the blades impaling her. Tensing up the muscles in her hand, the force traveled to the tips, and Alice exploded apart in a shower of dust and body parts. Ranma's fingers slithered and snaked back to snap into their normal shape.

The reaction from the group was immediate and intense. Jasper was the first one to reach her and she rolled to the side in order to avoid his clumsy attempt to claw at her. Before she could make another move, she was engulfed by the rest of the group. They ripped and tore into her body and in a moment she had been dismembered. The Cullen's weren't done as they took the pieces of her to throw into the still burning fires.

It took her a moment to deal with the disorientation of being in multiple places at once, and actually losing her head. In Emmet's arms, her torso jerked and convulsed, and from her chest a giant wolfs head shot out to snap at the muscular vampire. A canine body formed behind, growing large until the form was three times the size of Emmet. Pinning him to the ground, the wolf started to rip and tear into the vampire.

Severed arms and legs exploded into meter long spikes or morphed into tentacles covered with red eyes to wrap up the vampire holding them. Ranma's head dissolved into a black liquid and melted through Carlisle's hands. Her disembodied laugh echoed around the field as chaos erupted. The puddle that was her head jumped across the grass to join with the tentacle that Jasper was struggling with. Her upper body rose up from the tentacle and she grabbed him around the throat with her left hand before pulling back her right and reforming it into a spiked club.

"Monster!" He screamed while struggling in vain.

"I know." She brought her right hand down to pulverize his head. Releasing his body as he fell, she reformed legs. Taking a moment to survey the carnage, Carlisle had went to help Emmet with the wolf she was partially controlling as it ran around just out of reach with one of the vampires legs in it's mouth like a dog playing keep away.

Focusing on Rosalie next, the spiked limb that was sticking through her grew, and wrapped itself to nearly encompass her whole body. The black body covering then began to squeeze, crushing the girl's body from the feet up. Rosalie screamed in agony, her body being quickly reduced to just the upper body. Looking on in glee at the horrific sight, Ranma commanded the severed piece of her body to cover Rosalie completely, and with one last sickening crunch the body was crushed.

Calmly walking over, the black mass turned into a liquid, and left the still living girl's body to join back up with Ranma. Rosalie's body was twisted and compressed until it was almost flat. Ranma cocked her head to one side, imagining that it was like a human shaped concrete that had been broken and turned to dust in several places. Pieces of it twitched and there were signs that it was already starting to heal.

"You're a vampire, if you wanted that girl gone you should have done it yourself." Ranma snorted before being tackled by Esme, the woman using Ranma's own spikes to impale her. Hissing, Ranma reabsorbed the piece of her, allowing Esme free in the process.

"Why?" The woman screamed, clumsily slammed her hands into Ranma's chest with enough force to drive her into the grass. "Why did you do this?" Having enough of getting her ribcage crushed underneath each blow, Ranma formed a second set of arms from her stomach that held the woman's wrists in place above her.

"Don't think I wanted to." Ranma answered the distraught vampire calmly. "No matter how much I may enjoy the act, I don't like to kill vampires for being vampires. But that's what the humans want of me."

"You work for humans?" Esme tried to pull away again.

"Slaves can't help but obey their masters." Reaching up with her normal arms, Ranma gripped the woman's head between her hands. "I don't get to live a life of luxury." She squeezed slowly. "Your whole family disgusts me." The woman cried out in pain as her skull was crushed. "Worst of all you think you're better because you don't feed from humans!" Esme's skull caved in suddenly, covering Ranma with dust and some brain matter.

Pushing the remains aside, she pulled herself from the depression that had been created. "Three left." She let her eyes fall on Edward, who was on the ground unable to move his legs because spikes had ripped through them, and stuck into the ground. "I'll save you for last." She sneered, remembering his attitude from the previous day.

Closing her eyes and grabbing at her head, Ranma could feel the strain at controlling so many pieces of herself, especially during the day, taking it's toll. Changing into a duplicate giant wolf, she charged past the downed form of Emmet, and was on Carlisle who was distracted by the original wolf still gnawing on Emmet's leg. As soon as she had the vampire pinned, the leg was dropped, and together they tore Carlisle apart.

Turning towards Emmet as one, she rejoined with the other wolf to form a two headed one. The muscular vampire lacking a leg made an attempt to taunt her and defend himself. But without any mobility, there was little he could do but be torn to shreds. Snapping at the air with both heads, she haltingly returned to human form.

Edward was cursing her existence and making other comments that she mostly ignored. Putting several bullets in Jasper and Esme because their bodies were contained in one spot, she started them burning. For the rest she would have to go get some gasoline and simply burn the entire area. "Guess I got carried away." She noted tiredly. "Oh shut up." She remarked and had his mouth and half his head covered by the piece of herself still holding him in place.

Walking to stand within a meter of him, she cradled her chin in her hand, debating on how to finish him. Pulling bag his gag, she had decided on a course of action. "Any last words?" Dozens of spikes sprouted and started to surround his body to simply touch the skin.

"Don't you dare hurt Bella." He pleaded, obviously having accepted his fate.

"Hmm, I don't know about that. I'm really hungry." Without giving him a chance to speak, she extended the spikes.

X x x x x x

No rain came to stop the bodies from burning, the storm system having passed by to the South. Ranma stayed to watch the bodies be consumed until she was reasonably sure that they wouldn't be able to regenerate. Which meant they were completely unidentifiable as ever being human shape.

Popping open her cell phone, she dialed the Hellsing number. "Hey, all targets are no longer undead."

"Roger, you'll be contacted when for flight details and transport of your things." Walter answered.

"Tell whoever is moving my stuff that if they scratch up my coffin again I'll deal with them." She growled into the phone, remembering the last trip she had been on, and how a very long scratch had been put in the wood.

"I will."

"And don't you ever sleep?"

"I actually just woke up a short time ago." The phone clicked off.

"Poor old guy." She smirked.

Getting into the four door Jeep Wrangler she had stolen from the Cullen's, she headed into town. Then again it wasn't really stealing, she rationalized, being that they were dead, and would have no one to inherit. Arriving at her hotel, it took four blood packs to no longer be ready to snatch the first human she saw.

She had just changed clothes and was about to lay down to get a few hours of sleep when her phone went off. "What?" She asked angrily.

"Uh－ this is Charlie, I was just looking for an update." The human replied.

"The Cullens and the vampires who were attacking people are dead. Don't bother looking for bodies." Falling into her coffin, she mentally hit the lid on the outside to have it close. "Somebody will be sent by to handle the paperwork."

"Ah－." He sounded like he was thinking about something to say.

"Bye." Ending the call, she turned over on her side to ignore the world.

X x x x x x

Two days later

Chris Pickman watched Hellsing's private jet taxi along the runway and into the hanger where he was waiting. Dressed in a simple suit, he wasn't looking to drawn any attention, not with all the cameras about. He was leaning on the hood of a black car and behind that a black van that would transport Ranma's coffin. Checking his watch, the plane had arrived at eight fifteen pm, right on time. With a brief squeal of the brakes, the plane came to a halt with the jet engines already spinning down.

Walking towards the plane, The handle on the door swung to one side and it opened up to fold down to act as steps to the floor. Ranma was skipping down them as soon as it had finished opening. Under the harsh lights of the hanger, Ranma's pale skin was almost reflective. Either it was a fun hunt or she was happy to be back because a big grin was splitting her face.

"Welcome back." He greeted her before she had jumped up to wrap her arms around his neck and hang off of him. Grabbing her around the waist, he supported some of her slight weight. "Well this is different."

"Never thought I'd be so happy to be around a human who doesn't want to be a vampire." Ranma laughed to herself and he leaned forward so her feet could be on the ground.

"What brought that on?"

She finally let his neck go to glance back at the plane where the coffin was being unloaded. "Cause it would be really creepy if you went around begging me to turn you."

"That it would." He agreed.

"Don't ever beg." She informed him seriously, her smiling vanishing. With quick steps she beat him to the car before spinning around to face him. "But－ you can ask."

"I won't do either." He shook his head. "Ever."

"Then let's go home." The smile returned.

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

This was an absolute nightmare to write. What research I did into Twilight makes me hate it beyond all measure. But I didn't want to create a needless bash fic.

1 - After the events of chapter 9, the nickname Tiger Lily became an inside joke reference for Ranma, and the others have since become code names for communication. Alucard joked once about Integral being Nana, the Newfoundland dog who took care of the children, and that stuck as well. Though it's never spoken in her presence.

2 - Most vampires are edible.

**Omake: What if Ranma was forced to eat Edward By Catonfire**

Walter: *grin* Welcome back Miss Saotome, you're looking sparkly this evening.

Ranma: *grumbles* It's indigestion that's all.

*Ceras walks in* Ceras: ...? Is that body glitter?

Ranma: Grrrrr...

*Ranma hurries out of the room*

Alucard: HAHAHAHAhahahahaha!

Ranma: Master No Baka! *Wham!*


	3. Where art thou Alucard?

"Speech"

'Thought'

(Telepathy)

#Panda Sign#

This chapter gets just a bit dark, not just for violence, so you've been warned.

X x x x x x

"Yo, come out and tell me why you were in my room." She called out as the alley came to an end the only thing that he could have hid behind was a metal dumpster. "I got enough perverts, rivals, and fiancées busting in on me, I don't need anymore."

"I'm here." A voice breathed from directly behind her. Spinning she just caught sight of a pair of glowing red eyes before a fist impacted the side of her face sending her sprawling backwards into a wall. Recovering and regaining her feet she took a stance. Wiping at the side of her mouth she realized she had bit her lip. "That won't do at all, I've spilled some of your blood." The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

"Can't have any of that." It said from behind once again and in a flash she had jumped up to twist in midair before kicking out. Her foot connected with his head and drove him into the wall this time. Landing she resumed her stance and watched for any movement. But he just stood there laughing slumped against the wall. "My you are strong." he chuckled.

"So I am, now ya gonna tell me what you were doing in my room or what?" She asked and didn't let her eyes leave him. Every fiber of her being told her that this guy was strong and he put her on edge like no one else ever had. Not Ryoga, not Saffron, not even Herb came close to this guy. It didn't help that her body was screaming at her to run, because she did not run from a fight.

"Such a wonderful night this turned out to be." Slowly he drew himself up, showing that he was at least three heads taller than her, and straightened his clothing. "Maybe I won't kill you after all." Narrowing her eyes she nearly missed the momentary flicker of his body before she was grabbed by the throat and lifted off the ground.

Gasping, she grabbed his wrist and kicked him repeatedly in the side of his chest using amaguriken speeds. He took the several hundred hits without a care and she could barely reach him making each hit weaker than it should have been. Driving upwards she started to hit his arm with her knees having no effect. Attempting pressure points met the same fate. Gasping for air, her vision started to tunnel, and her attempts at getting free grew weaker and weaker.

Releasing his wrist she gathered all the confidence ki she could and threw her hands forward. "Mouko takabisha." She whispered and the blue ki exploded in the guy's face. As the aftereffect cleared away she could see him standing unharmed, though he did look shocked. 'I'm not confident enough.' She realized.

"I'm not cruel, I wished to spare you this trauma." As her arms and legs fell limp he moved her closer to his body and brought his other hand up to run through her hair. Too weak she could only bat weakly at his hand. "Red, the color of blood." He seemed to verbally smile and smacked his lips.

"Get away you freak." She wanted to spit in his face but couldn't do it with his hand on her throat.

"This is such a dirty place, we should have done this in a nice pleasant room." The man's face spread into a toothy grin, exposing long and sharp canines. Ranma's vision began to blacken around the edges. "Maybe a Western style bed with soft sheets and pillows."

'I gotta fight, who knows what this guy is gonna do if I don't.' Trying to raise her arms up again, they only reached her waist before falling back down. Her attacker was holding her just tight enough that she remained conscious while unable to respond. Staring defiantly into cruel green eyes, her own blue ones widened suddenly as thoughts of escape fled her mind. She tried to fight but every attempt to resist the compulsion slipped further and further away.

"That's better." He purred, lowering her to ground to stand on her own feet, he had to hold her upright while blood started to return to her brain. Ranma could do nothing as he held her around the waist and adjusted her head to lean back and to the side exposing her neck. "It's time I satisfied this thirst." Ranma felt his fangs stab deep into her neck and she moaned in pain, unable to physically resist.

X x x x x x

"Wake up."

Ranma felt someone nudge her shoulder and she rolled away from the source of the annoyance, wanting to go back to sleep. Her mind rebelled against this idea though, forcibly dragging her to consciousness.

"I said wake up." The voice repeated with far more force and her mind snapped into full alert.

Shooting up into a sitting position, Ranma rubbed at her eyes to clear out some sleep gunk. Blinking, she shook her head, and looked around. She was in a Western style bath tub, inside of a bathroom without any windows. Standing over her was a tall man in black dress pants and shirt. His face was pale and not fully Japanese, but some handsome European mix with green eyes bordering on teal.

"Who are you?" She asked, glancing down to see that she was only dressed in her tank top and boxers. The man looked familiar, like she had just met him recently, yet where she had seen him escaped her. Rubbing at her forehead with both hands, her memory wasn't right, and she could barely remember what she had been doing yesterday morning.

"I'm your Master." He introduced. "And you are my new servant."

"Master?" She wondered why he would tell her that. "Did Nabiki sell me again?"

He smirked. "Stupid fledgling, you are a vampire now, I'm your Sire, and that makes you mine."

"A vampire? That's a new one." Standing up in the slipper tub, she stepped out. The crazy man was much taller than her, the top of her head barely reaching his mid chest. "You mind telling me where I am so I can figure out how to get home?"

He frowned and Ranma immediately screamed, clutching at her head, and falling backwards into the tub. Clawing at her hair, she writhed in pain, bouncing off the sides of the acrylic basin. It felt like her head was being torn apart from the inside out, as if hundreds of bugs were eating her flesh. The searing pain finally ended and she slumped against the side, breathing heavily, in too much shock to do anything else.

"I don't appreciate your impudence." He informed her. "Now get up and get dressed, you must be hungry." Ranma didn't immediately do as ordered, still struggling to figure out what was going on. "Do not make me repeat myself."

Shakily rising to her feet, Ranma nearly fell stepping back out of the bathtub once again. Staggering out of the bathroom, she found that it was night and she was in an expensive looking apartment, with glass windows that ran around two sides, and a door to her left that lead into another room. To the right was what looked like the exit. She could make it if she went now, the crazy man with the weird mind power was in the other room.

"The clothes are in here." He called and automatically she turned from the exit to enter into the other room. The bedroom was large, with a wooden coffin laying on the floor next to a queen sized bed. The man had the closet opened and was holding up some female clothing. Seeing her, he held up a dress so that from his perspective she was wearing it. "It's too bad that you're shorter, these would fit perfectly if you were about ten centimeters taller."

"If you're going to give me clothes, I'd prefer guy ones." She tested the waters. "Or if I could use some of the hot water in the bath so I could change back." Ranma briefly wondered why she hadn't simply changed back but then reasoned that the situation was strange enough to miss the opportunity.

"You don't have to worry about that anymore." He answered. "And if you ever take that form again without my permission you will be punished."

"What do you mean?"

"Because you are still adjusting I will let your questioning go this time. But you are a draculina now and a draculina you will stay. I have no desire for even a male appearing fledgling." He smiled darkly at her. "Besides, hot water will do nothing but get you wet now."

Ranma shivered, feeling the man intrude on her mind once again, it wasn't painful just uncomfortable. When it was over, she stared down at her hands, a vision from the point of view of the man testing hot water on her while she slept. Collapsing to her knees, her mind rebelled at what he was telling her.

"Enough emotions." He threw some clothing on the bed and walked by her. "Get dressed in that, you'll feel better after you've had your first meal." Once he was out of the room, she heard him add. "Don't make me wait."

X x x x x x

Finished dressing, Ranma stared into a mirror hanging on the wall. The clothing he had picked out was a cheerful looking yukata with a flower print that could be adjusted to deal with her height, even if it meant her arms were swallowed up by the sleeves. It didn't match her mood in the slightest. Her eyes were no longer blue but the same shade of green as the man, her skin was pale to the point of being white, and she now had long, very sharp fangs.

Not only did she look different, but she felt different. She could feel her ki had been replaced by something heavy, oppressive, and very inhuman. Ranma could now feel the man in the other room, a strange presence that she was unable to shut out. Glancing at the coffin on her way out, she found the strange man sitting in a plush chair, waiting impatiently for her.

"What did you do to me?" She forced herself to ask.

"Your curse intrigued me, I was going to kill you, but I decided to satisfy my curiosity, and see if you would become a ghoul－ or vampire." He rose to his feet. "Now stop wasting time, I'm sure you'll feel better once you've had your first meal." Without waiting for her to follow he headed out the entrance, while Ranma simply stared forward in shock.

(Come) His voice reverberated in her head and she hastily grabbed a pair of slightly too big sandals to follow him down the hall way. An elevator carried them down to the ground, a ride that Ranma took in complete silence. For some reason she trusted what the man had said though she did not like any of the implications that came with it.

Exiting the lobby of the apartment building, rational thought began to become difficult when surrounded by people. She could smell them, hear them, and she wanted to have them in a way that she had never felt before.

"Control yourself." He commanded. "If you attack humans in the open you draw attention to me, to yourself." Ranma realized with a horrible moment of clarity what she truly wanted from the people around her. At first she was revolted at herself, but then the hunger she was feeling pushed it to the side.

It would have been easy to escape now, out in the crowds, but no matter how much she wanted to run away, to get away from the man, his strong presence kept her at his side. Some part of her, a very strong part, actually looked up to the man and trusted him.

She had expected them to go to someplace secluded but instead she found herself attending a sumo competition. Pressed on all sides by humanity, she barely noticed him paying, or walking around the stadium to take seats in the upper level. Gripping the plastic arm rests tightly, they started to warp and deform from the force.

"Why did you bring me here?" She asked, her teeth clenched so tightly that she thought they might break.

"I had plans to come here before I made you. I'm not going to change my schedule just because you're here." He answered. "Do you not like sumo?"

"Sumo is fine." Chewing on her lip, she didn't know how much of this she could take. Smell, sight, and hearing were all giving her a sensory overload.

"Good, calm down and enjoy it."

The competition stretched out into an eternity. She could block out the smell, apparently she no longer needed to breath. She could block out the sight by closing her eyes. But she could not stop the endless drumming of the hearts around her, not even the loud voices could stop it. 'He's doing this on purpose.' She realized halfway through. 'He's going to get me so worked up I'm going to attack someone.'

Well she wasn't going to do that. She wouldn't give in to this. Ranma would rather die than do what he wanted.

X x x x x x

When they finally got up to leave, Ranma was, no matter her resolve, ready to do what she felt like doing. Dark thoughts entered into her mind whenever she saw a person that caught her eye. Forcibly keeping her eyes on the ground, she wished to be out of the crowd as soon as possible.

"You'll be able to feed soon." The vampire who had put her in this hell said as though she should be happy.

"I won't do it, I won't hurt anyone, and you can't make me." She said defiantly as they finally reached a secluded spot.

"Silly fledgling, I could remake you into what I want. You're mine to do with as I please." He seemed more amused than anything else, turning to look down at her with a cruel smile. "Would you like that? For me to twist you into the perfect little vampire?"

Ranma took an involuntary step back, having encountered mind altering magic before, she wanted no part of it again. The vampire reached out and cupped her cheek, gently rubbing his thumb along her skin.

"I could even make you my lover, show you what you missed out on in your mortal life." He suddenly grabbed her by the hair on the side of her head and with a quick jerk pulled her close to him. "When I can, I will free you from your servitude, I took on that responsibility when I made you, until then, you will follow my orders. Or I will make it so I have no desire to let you leave. Understand?"

She wasn't hurt by what he was doing, but nodded, having no desire to become someone's willing sex slave. "Yes－ Master."

"Good." He released her hair and smoothed it out. "Without feeding you'll grow weaker and weaker, as you are now, if someone so much as waved a crucifix at you, you'd likely explode into dust."

"Can't I just have normal food?" She didn't know if she could, blood was what she wanted, but if she could get by on regular food then there was no reason to break her promise.

"No, human food is poison, now enough nonsense, we will now go find your first meal."

X x x x x x

Laying in her bed, Ranma didn't immediately get up, choosing to remain in the bathtub she now lived out of. If she could call what her life had become living. She didn't even get a pillow or blanket to make the hard material more comfortable. Ranma didn't even know how long she had been a vampire, the nights seemed to meld together into a haze of degrading tasks for her Master, and endless boredom.

The apartment that she lived in had been liberated from the previous owners when her Master had killed them. Using knowledge gleamed from the information contained in their blood he was able to make it seem like they were still here for bills and rent. He used her to get money to keep living here by having her feed from wealthy people and then empty their bank account. Ranma wouldn't mind that so much if she actually got a percentage of the money, but all she received was allowance to buy clothing, specifically female clothing.

Vampires she found out were natural shape shifters and as soon as she had learned that particular talent she had become male once. True to his word, he had punished her by going into her mind and painfully removing the image she had of herself as a male. Remembering her human life always resulted in seeing her current self. She could still become male, but it would never be herself ever again.

Sniffling, she rolled over to lay on her other side. She despised her Sire in a way she had never felt before. Not even Happosai could have caused this much hatred from her. The worst part was that thinking about leaving, what life would be like without him, was horrifying. She had asked twice now when she would be freed, and each time he had said she wasn't ready with an infuriating smile on his face telling her that he had no plans to.

The door to the room slid open and her Master walked in wearing only a towel. "Out." He commanded.

Deciding that she had spent enough of the night trying to get sleep that would never come, Ranma went out into the apartment so he could use the bath. Vampires didn't sweat much and what little they did had no smell to it. Baths were still nice though and Ranma made a point to have one once a night, hoping in a vain that the water would wash away the shame she felt from being a vampire. She also hoped that it might give her back her real body, the one she could no longer remember, but no amount of hot water ever changed her.

Getting dressed in some jeans and a sweater, Ranma headed out to get away from the depressing apartment. Even if the only clothing she was allowed to buy was in the feminine part of the store, she still dressed in a masculine way.

She took off running at high speed, using some vampire power to literally fly over the tall rooftops of the inner city. The apartment was near the Akihabara shopping area, which was where her Master usually found his meals. Ranma occasionally wandered the stores, looking at merchandise she would otherwise be able to purchase if she wasn't supporting a lazy vampire almost three hundred years her senior.

It was quite a trek to reach her destination, but going in a relatively straight path at super human speeds had shortened it considerably. Crouched on a roof overlooking the Tendo home, she could see over the koi pond, and through the open doors inside. Her family and several of the Tendos were sitting around the table talking, her sensitive ears easily picking up that it was a conversation about something at school.

This was the first time she had come back since being turned. Fear had kept her away, how would they react to what she had become? How would her Master act if he found her trying to contact them? He had stressed that to seek her past life would only end badly. She would have ignored such an idea if it didn't have a sliver of truth to it. As well as a hint of a threat.

No one would know if she got just a little bit closer. Jumping from the roof and into the yard, she melted into the shadows, an ability inherited from her Master, and slipped into the home. Watching them from the corner of the room, she wanted nothing more than to form out of the shadow, to let them know that she was still here. Struggling with indecision, she did nothing but wait for them to leave the room, and go to sleep. Moving through the shadows back outside, Ranma reformed up on the roof, sitting with her head in her hands.

'Maybe when I'm free I'll come back. Maybe then I can face them.'

X x x x x x

Laughing to herself, Ranma took the money from the ATM, and shoved it into her pant pocket along with the bank card. Her Master would not be getting this money, that leech had enough money to live in that apartment for years now. She didn't even want to go through the hassle of taking the rest of the money from the account. Especially since she had nowhere to put close to six million yen.

The cash would be spent on little things, while she would use the bank card for bigger purchases. Ranma couldn't wait to spend it though, the man she had taken it from would be found soon enough, and there would be security cameras that would come into play. Thankfully the face she now wore had no background, no fingerprints, no parents, and no identity. All anyone could come up with is a face that fit hundreds of other teenage girls who often visited the area.

Being that most of her time was spent in boredom, she looked for things to waste time. A music player was her first purchase, but then she realized that she had to get music for it, so she ended up purchasing a small laptop, and a bunch of prepaid cards to download music. They were things that she could never have afforded in her human life so casually and it would be nice to be able to just block out the world.

Wandering through the crowd of humanity, she wondered what else she could purchase. Not so much that she needed anything, she just didn't have anything, and wasn't supposed to. That was probably the main reason, to piss her Master off if he ever found out.

"Ranma?" A very familiar voice called out to her. Instinctively she looked towards the voice that had called her name and instantly regretted it. Akane took it as all the confirmation necessary to run up and envelope her in a bone crushing hug. "You're alive!"

"Do－ do I know you?" Ranma stuttered, her voice betraying her, and pulled herself away from the youngest Tendo.

"Ranma what happened to you?" Akane wasn't about to let her go, reaching out to grab Ranma's wrist.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who this Ranma is." Ranma's heart was hammering in her chest, trying to keep a neutral face, to not show how happy she was to have someone call her name. Akane recoiled, searching Ranma's eyes desperately. Ranma made the mistake of looking away, unable to meet the Tendo girl's gaze. She caught sight of Akane's friends, Yuka and Sayuri, following as if Akane had suddenly left them.

"Please, it's me Akane, what's happened? You've been gone for four months. We almost－ we were almost ready to have a funeral for you."

"Akane-san, please let me go, I do not know you." Ranma pulled as lightly as she could, trying to hide her strength from the human girl. "And you're being very rude."

"Ranma?" Akane released her, staring at Ranma with a look of confusion and hurt.

"I'm sorry I'm not the person you're looking for Tendo-san." Ranma bowed quickly and hurried off searching for a secluded spot. She didn't get more than three steps away before she felt the realization wash over Akane that she had not told Ranma her last name.

"Ranma stop!" Akane yelled. Running, Ranma ducked into narrow passage between two buildings and vanished into the shadows. The youngest Tendo followed her briefly before stopping and looking around in confusion.

"Akane." Yuka finally caught up. "She said she wasn't Ranma."

"She knew my last name." Akane answered her friend. "I didn't tell her that."

Disgusted with herself, Ranma didn't stay to watch the humans. She was such a coward. If she had any kind of courage she would stand up to vampire who had turned her and demand freedom. She would go back to her family and face the consequences of her failure that night.

Back at the apartment, the plastic bags carrying her purchases made telltale crinkling noises as she moved. Not that she could sneak them by him since he was watching television in the main room. Ranma realized that she had been too distracted by Akane's sudden appearance to worry about that.

"You purchased something." He leaned back in his chair to look at her, his eyes instantly going down to the large bag with the square box of the laptop.

"I did." She shifted her weight to one leg. "So?" Ranma decided to be upfront and casual about it.

"What?" He seemed simply curious.

"A music player and a laptop."

"If it keeps you out of the way." He turned back to the television. "Actually I believe the cable comes with an internet connection, you will have to let me use it when I wish." Taking out the laptop box in the kitchen area, she was about to open it up when he spoke up again. "Did you hear me?"

"Yes Master."

X x x x x x

Two weeks later

"Girl, more blood."

Ranma sighed internally at the request and took the empty glass to get the requested drink. Her Master had decided to show her off to another vampire that he was apparently friends with. This vampire was named Nathanial and he looked like he was in his late fifties, with a fit build, and average height and looks. Unlike her Sire, he was a pure gaijin, likely from Europe, and he wore an expensive business suit that seemed slightly out of date.

In the kitchen area, she opened up the normally neglected fridge, and turned the nozzle on a plastic water container normally used for camping to let blood pour into a wine glass. The previous night she had helped harvest the life giving substance and she had complained during every step. Not only did she have to deal with being around so much blood, which had driven her up a wall not to touch any of it, but she also had moral qualms, if she had to take life to eat, it shouldn't be at knife point.

Handing the glass to the elder vampire, he didn't even thank her before going back to talking to her Master like she wasn't even there. Which was just fine by her. The less she was involved, the less Nathanial decided to leer at her. Vampire senses could leave little privacy, seeing through such flimsy objects as clothing was child's play. So the clingy little black dress she wore didn't protect the tiny fraction of a percent of her feminine modesty. Then again he probably liked that he couldn't see everything, enjoying the mystery more than the reality.

Sitting down just out of Nathanial's line of sight, she retreated enough from the world that time would pass faster, yet she could still react to the outside world. She had been eye candy enough before; normally she even enjoyed the attention, and the ego boost it gave. This time wasn't really all that different, Ranma would have to be stupid or as unobservant as Akane and Ryoga combined not to notice how she was treated like an object in this body often enough. Even her two friends Hiroshi and Daisuke did it often. That also carried the strange connotation that she should treat this form as an object as well.

"So why did you make her?" Nathanial asked. This was the first time either of them had really discussed her, sticking to more of what they had been doing since they last met.

"Why? Just a little experiment. She was a boy."

"I find that hard to believe." Nathanail's eyes roamed over her form, obviously looking past her clothes as he did. No doubt seeing that she was indeed a girl.

"Born and raised, up until she received a magic curse that made her change back and forth."

"Sounds like a fun experiment."

"Oh yes, she was very delicious." Her Master purred. "A delicacy really. Too bad she's rather worthless. If her attitude wasn't so horrible she would make a good companion."

"Why not just make her more useful?"

Ranma gulped at this direction of the conversation. Fear of her Master taking away the last parts of her that were her was what kept her from fighting him. After that night when she had been found by Akane, in her depression she had considered if it would be better for him to destroy who she was. She would no longer be herself, she'd be truly dead, but at least she might enjoy being a vampire and wouldn't have the past haunting her. That idea had been instantly squashed; she wouldn't give up to him, that was probably what he wanted, for her to become his willing little slave. She would survive this and come out stronger on the other side.

"Actually her obstinate attitude is rather refreshing. It wouldn't be as fun if she just did what I wanted."

Ranma narrowed her eyes angrily. 'Bastard.'

"And she does look so adorable when she's angry." He added upon seeing her look.

Fuming a second longer, she quickly steeled her face to look completely passive, and without a hint of emotion. 'He's just trying to get under my skin, probably wants a reason to punish me in front of his scumbag buddy.' Ranma had dealt with her Masters innuendo enough and she had been spared his advances in that he preferred human girls.

"Master, may I be excused? So you two can talk?" Ranma wanted to at least put a wall between herself and the two elder vampires.

"No." He answered and held up his glass. "Now get me some more."

X x x x x x

In the apartment above the Nekohanten, Cologne sat relaxing before bed, her pipe drifting up a small stream of smoke towards the ceiling. It had been nearly three weeks now since she had found out from the Tendo girl that Ranma was alive. She was hesitant to take action on this news, keeping Shampoo occupied during the day, and inside at night.

When first learning of Ranma's disappearance, she had been furious with the Tendos and Saotomes for missing the signs. But once she had calmed down, she realized that it was unfair to assume they would have realized what was going on. She chose not to tell them what may have happened to him. Cologne had seen the news reports about missing girls. Either Ranma was dead or worse than dead. But she still held out hope that Ranma was just missing.

Taking a long drag from her pipe, there was movement in the shadow behind her television, and she blew the smoke out slowly. "You should come out." She informed the intruder, debating on whether or not to grab her staff.

The figure that rose from the shadow was both expected yet not. It was Ranma in female form, her red hair still braided in a pigtail, and wearing a variation of her normal clothing that fit her form. Her skin was pale and two intense teal eyes looked at Cologne, reminding her of a beaten dog.

"I'm not sure if I should be happy or sad to see you still moving." Cologne tried to look nonchalant by continuing to smoke casually.

"It'd be nice if I had a choice, but I can't take my life." A small smile appeared on the red heads face. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know, it's why I came."

"If you wish, I could assist in that." Cologne wouldn't have offered if Ranma didn't look so beaten. It was like back when that monster Happosai had applied the weakness moxibustion on the teenager.

"How would you do it? I don't know how a vampire can die."

"I had heard that there were rules and guidelines for vampires on turning another. I would think, things that will kill you, would be required information. Right, Son in law?"

"Don't call me that." Ranma snapped.

"So you were turned as a girl then?"

"I can't remember what I looked like." The red head's voice was shaky. "He took it from me."

"And you wish to kill him for it?"

"And more." Ranma glanced down at the cushion next to Cologne and Shampoo's dining table, and she nodded. The vampire took a seat while Cologne put out her pipe, no longer having the option of looking carefree. A distressed vampire was a dangerous and unpredictable one. "You acted like you knew, how do you kill a vampire?"

"There are many ways and some do not work all the time." Grabbing her staff, she hopped over to a large trunk she had in the corner. "Decapitation isn't a sure thing. Fire can do the job if they aren't able to put it out. Silver, especially something blessed properly will burn worse than fire, but it must penetrate their heart to kill them. But the simplest way is to take a wooden stake and run it through their heart."

"He has a silver wakizashi." Ranma mumbled to herself.

"That would explain why the news report said the victims were missing and not dead by blood loss. A good way for a vampire to cover their tracks. Let any authorities solve a mystery they are incapable of solving." Digging through the trunk, she looked for the right artifact to give to Shampoo for protection. "Is that the only reason you came here?"

"I needed to tell you that you have to leave."

"Oh?" Finding the pendant, she put it in her pocket, and turned back to Ranma. In a minute it would attune to the vampire sitting in front of her, once it had done that, Shampoo would be safe from the type of vampire Ranma had become. "I'm running a business and can't simply pack everything up and leave on short notice."

"My Master mentioned Shampoo the other night."

"I take it that it wasn't just casual conversation." Cologne looked towards the entrance of the room and briefly wondered if Shampoo was still sleeping peacefully or if Ranma was simply a diversion.

"He joked about having the whole set." Ranma squeezed her eyes closed and bowed her head almost to the table. "Please protect Akane and Ukyo."

"I can make no promises." This was very bad indeed. The pendent should be able to protect Shampoo but she didn't have anything else. She had ways of fighting a vampire, however she couldn't be everywhere at once, or on watch all the time. This was also a huge request, while bearing no ill will towards either girl; she had no reason to put her life on the line of them.

"One more thing." Ranma straightened up. "Do you know how a vampire is freed from their master?"

"The Joketsuzoku know more on how to destroy them not how they live, but I was told drinking the masters blood."

"Thanks for your help." Ranma rose to her feet and backed up towards the shadow again.

"Son－ I mean Ranma. Where are you going?"

"If I stay away too long he might get suspicious about where I went."

"I see."

"Cologne－ I wanted to thank you－ for helping."

"You were my Shampoo's betrothed, think of it as a last request."

"It may be." Ranma shook her head. "If he finds out about this－ I'm sorry if I do anything." The red head fell into a shadow and vanished.

'A useful ability.' Lighting up her pipe again, she wondered why all the dark creatures of the world had easy access to reality breaking abilities.

X x x x x x

Moaning softly on the floor, Ranma struggled to get over the latest mental attack by her Master. Inching herself away from him, he kicked her in the stomach, making her flop on to her back. His foot slamming down on her chest, breaking her ribs, and crushing several organs. Unable to cry out in pain or remove his foot, she whimpered ineffectually in pain.

"Why must you disappoint me?" He asked with his eyes closed. "Asking a human how to kill us? What side are you on?" Lifting up his foot, he kicked her in the side again, sending her sprawling into the side of a chair. Clutching at her destroyed chest, she felt the damage immediately begin to heal itself.

"Do you really think they care about you?" He knelt down next to her. "You're a vampire, given the chance they would kill you without a second thought." Grabbing both sides of her head, he hauled her up to look directly in his face. "And here I thought I was being so generous－ offering to make a little sister just for you."

"Please." Ranma wheezed. "Don't."

"Because of you, they've learned of us." He let her go and Ranma's head bounced off the floor. "I suppose I need to fix you since you're not smart enough to do as I say." Eyes wide with fright, Ranma ignored her injured body, and backed away from the master vampire.

"Such little trust you have for me." He easily kept pace with her backward movement. Ranma had to pause as her organs suddenly healed themselves, her ribs soon joining them. Taking several deep, unneeded breaths out of reflex, she was unprepared for the pain that assaulted her.

X x x x x x

Ranma's eyes snapped open and she sat up in a flash. She couldn't remember the mental attack stopping, only finally being disconnected from the pain, and then nothing. Rubbing at her eyes, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. All around her was nothing but blackness. She could see nothing, not an outline of an object, not even what she was sitting on. The only thing she could see was her unclothed self, which strangely she could make out normally. Ever since becoming a vampire, she could see clearly in a room where no light could enter, being in a place where she could see nothing felt so alien and wrong.

Getting to her feet, she wondered where her clothes had gone but waved that concern away to shout into the darkness. "Hello!" There was no echo or response. "Anybody!" She tried again while walking forward until her face met an invisible wall. Clutching her face briefly, she soon felt around looking for a seam, and found that she was enclosed within a box. Jumping upwards, her head painfully hit a ceiling the same height as the box was wide.

Finding a corner, she sat down with her back to the wall, and pulled her knees up to her chest to stare into the black world around her. The last thing she remembered was her Sire attacking her mentally. Had he killed her? Was this where vampires went when they died? Ranma started to cry softly, overwhelmed by her new circumstance. Her life had been stolen by a vampire and now he had condemned her to this?

How much time passed, Ranma couldn't tell, her mind was playing tricks on her, but finally she heard something. It sounded like someone was shifting around a bathtub. The dark around her vanished in an instant and she was back in the place she had woke up every night since becoming a vampire.

"Hey!" She got to her feet and looked around. No matter where her eyes turned, the same vision from someone else's eyes was all she saw. The world twisted and the person sighed contentedly while stretching. Looking down as they stepped out of the tub, Ranma now knew the person was female, and that it was her when they looked into a mirror over a sink.

Watching, the doppelganger appraised herself in the mirror, poking at her face, and prodding at her hair until she untied the pigtail to let her long red hair free. Digging in a drawer, the girl grabbed a brush and sat down on the edge of the tub to run it through her hair.

"What's going on?" Ranma wondered, trying to figure out why she was watching herself do this. Having no clothing or any other item, her own hair was already out of it's pigtail.

The other Ranma seemed satisfied with her work, returning the brush to the drawer, and stepping out into the main room of the apartment. Her Sire was waiting, reclining on the couch with his feet kicked up on to the cushions. "How do you feel?" He asked smugly.

"Oh I feel wonderful Master." Ranma's own voice echoed around her, the girl running up to stand before the master vampire. "What ever can I do to thank you for all that you've done?"

Ranma gagged at the girl's actions. Banging futilely on her invisible prison, she couldn't help but watch the girl be pulled down to sit on his lap. Ranma shivered in disgust as her Master lightly played with her hair. Even inside this prison she could feel everything that her body was feeling.

"I can think of－ many things." He gave the other Ranma a knowing smile, seeming to look to Ranma's prison. "But don't you want me to make a sister for you?"

"Really?" The other Ranma exclaimed happily. "Oh thank you Master!" She gushed, hugging the elder vampire.

"No!" Ranma shouted, throwing her fists against her prison. "No no no!" She screamed.

"Go get changed." The master vampire waved a hand dismissively towards the bathroom. "You want to look your best when you meet your new sister don't you?"

X x x x x x

Ukyo leaned on the counter watching the entrance to her shop. Business had been slow tonight and Konatsu was cleaning the sink for the third time. The male kunoichi was always busy with something and it tired Ukyo out just watching him. Her day had been highlighted by Shampoo coming by to say Cologne wanted to see her about something urgent. Ukyo wasn't interested in what the old crone wanted so she had ignored Shampoo to deal with the few customers that had come in.

Akane had been by about a week ago and told her that Ranma was still alive but was hiding out for some reason. That answered the question that had been hanging over their heads for months now. Ranma would come back when he was done with whatever it was he was doing, and if not, then she would just track him down again.

"Hey Konatsu." She called into the back.

"Yes Ukyo-sama?" The pretty head of her gender confused waiter appeared in the doorway.

"It's getting late, I'm going to close up."

"I'll clean the griddle." He chirped happily and she didn't have the heart to tell him that it was already clean.

Ukyo stopped on her way out from behind the counter when a short girl came inside. "Welcome to Ucchans". She greeted before recognizing the red head in front of her. "Ranchan!" She cried out happily, running up and gathering the smaller girl in a hug.

That her fiancé was wearing a black halter top with spaghetti straps that was showing off a large amount of cleavage and fitting capri blue jeans didn't register for a moment. But she quickly wrote it off as Ranma out to scam someone. What was important was that he was back.

"Where have you been?" She demanded, pulling Ranma over to the counter.

"That's actually why I'm here." The red head said in a way that made the hairs on the back of Ukyo's neck stand up. Ranma usually made an effort to sound more masculine as a girl, but now she was using feminine language, and seemed completely relaxed with how her voice sounded.

"Really?" Ukyo took a seat next to Ranma. "I'd ask if you wanted some hot water but I don't think you could pull off that look as a guy." She joked, noticing strange differences in her childhood friend. The eyes were an unnerving shade of teal, not for the color, but the person behind them didn't feel right.

"Hello Ranma-sama." Konatsu greeted as he came out to clean the grill.

"Hello Konatsu." Ranma returned enthusiastically.

Ranma's skin was very pale, something Ukyo didn't think possible with how much time he spent outdoors. Sure it was almost summer and the winter had been cold, but she didn't think a person could get that pale naturally unless they were shut up in a dark room all their lives. When the redhead smiled at her, Ukyo saw that she had long sharp fangs.

"Are you alright?" Ukyo asked, wondering what the cursed boy had been through. The shorter girl didn't look bad, in fact she seemed a little more attractive than before.

"Oh I couldn't be better." Ranma answered in a bubbly voice. "I've never felt better in my life." She added a half beat later.

"You mind telling me what you did to make yourself feel so good? I've been worried sick about you and it'd be nice to relax. Hey, how about we take a trip to the beach, just the two of us?" The weather was warm enough now. Well the water wouldn't be all that warm but being out on the beach in the sun would feel nice.

"The beach－ can't do that. But do you really want to?" Ranma asked hopefully.

Ukyo didn't have a chance to respond before the enthusiastic red head grabbed her by the wrist and started to pull her towards the doorway. "Ranchan wait I have to close up before I go anywhere, I can't trust Konatsu with the money." She protested, struggling to pull herself free from Ranma's iron grip. 'Wow, Ranchan must be really cold.'

"But Master is waiting." Ranma stopped to turn back to her, a confused expression on her face as if the cursed boy couldn't figure out what to do now.

Ukyo winced as Ranma's confusion turned to frustration and she started to squeeze her fist. "Ranchan－ you're hurting me."

"Is he now?" Cologne hopped into the store on her cane. "Evening Ranma." The elderly woman greeted.

"Hello." Ranma seemed to finally be back on track and became bubbly again as she loosened her grip. "I'm sorry you can't be turned." She said sadly. "But I'll miss you when you're gone."

"There's a few years of life left in these old bones." Cologne reached into her sleeve and pulled out what looked like a jar of peanuts. "I did get something for you."

"Really?" Ranma eyes lit up and she released Ukyo's wrist to grab the jar from Cologne. Rubbing at where a bruise was already forming, Ukyo watched Ranma puzzle over the gift. "I can't eat these though."

"Oh it's not food." The Chinese woman answered. "You'll just have to open and find out what it is."

"Okay!" Ranma chirped, unscrewing the lid, and looking directly inside. With a heavy poof, a white cloud exploded from the chair to hang around Ranma. Ukyo found herself thrown across the room by Cologne as Ranma looked around at the glittering dust cloud. Konatsu appeared at her side and checking to make sure that she was unhurt.

"What is this?" The pale girl asked, her eyes crossing, and her noise twitching like she had something in it. The red head's breath suddenly caught and she started to choke and gag.

"Mousse." Cologne ordered and the blind boy jumped into the room. "The chains." The old woman added.

"Yea yea." He threw his arms forwards and chains show from his sleeves to wrap up a chair.

"Put your glasses on you blind fool!" Cologne shook her head, keeping an on Ranma as she staggered over to lean on the counter, clutching at her chest and clawing at her throat.

"What are you doing?" Ukyo shouted, torn between helping Ranma, and finding out what was Cologne's purpose. Mousse was retrieving his chains rather than pull out new ones.

"Saving your life." Cologne answered calmly. "Hurry up before she can recover." She told Mousse.

"Shut up you old mummy." He answered, putting on his glasses, and wrapping Ranma in the chains.

Ukyo covered her ears at Ranma's scream of pain, the small girl falling to the floor, smoke erupting from where the chains touched her skin. "Stop it!" Ukyo ran up to free Ranma but found herself falling flat on her face, Cologne's staff having caught her legs.

"Do not hurt Ukyo-sama again." Konatsu stepped between Ukyo and Cologne. Ranma's screams came to an end, replaced by pained whimpers that were muffled when Mousse gagged her with some cloth.

"I'm saving her life." Cologne narrowed her eyes at the male kunoichi, sensing something off about his feminine appearance but being unable to pinpoint what. "If you had come to see me earlier you would have known that Ranma has become a creature of the night, a vampire. We've wasted enough time and we need to get to a secure location before the master vampire realizes what's going on."

X x x x x x

"I'm going to have to burn these clothes because all this garlic is NOT coming out." Nabiki sat on a chair in the main room of the Nekohanten, her arms crossed, watching impassively as Cologne went about doing some final preparations to keep the other vampire out.

Ranma was bound in the center of the room to a chair, looking like the most miserable thing in existence. Some of her skin was still smoking from the chains, and it looked like she was having a severe allergic reaction to all the garlic Cologne had strung up. Every so often Ranma would have a coughing fit, her skin had splotchy red patches all over, and she wouldn't stop moaning in pain.

"What can we do for my son?" Nodoka asked Cologne worriedly. All of Nabiki's family was here as well as the other two Saotome's. Ukyo and Konatsu had tagged along after Ranma had apparently tried to drag Ukyo off, and Shampoo and Mousse lived here. Nobody had bothered to tell Kodachi, but Nabiki figured that no one in their right mind would want to make her a vampire.

"Not much I'm afraid, vampirism doesn't have a cure." The old woman sighed, finally taking a seat on the cash register counter. "If Ranma was still himself I would have suggested getting some of the master vampires blood to free him. That way he could help us defeat him. But－ not now."

"Why not?" Nodoka demanded.

"Because as Ranma feared, his master has done things to his mind." Cologne pointed a small finger at Ukyo. "Did that seem like Ranma to you?"

"No." Ukyo answered, having a perpetual frown since she got here. "That's not Ranchan."

"So then what are going to do?" Akane asked.

"Use Ranma as bait." Cologne answered. "And then－ we end his suffering." The old woman's gaze swept over them, before pausing. "Where is your eldest?" She asked Soun.

"Oh she said she was going to go grab a book if we were going to be here a while." Nabiki's father answered.

"Kitchen destroyer's father no too smart." Shampoo commented.

"Come with me." Cologne pointed to Shampoo, Genma, Soun, and Mousse as she hopped out of the store front. Akane didn't seem to like the idea of being left behind while their elder sister was possibly being attacked by a vampire capable of taking Ranma out, so she followed too. Nabiki didn't move, figuring that the stench of garlic was preferable to being put in mortal peril.

Now that Cologne was no longer here to stop her, Nodoka grabbed a damp rag from the kitchen and began to wipe at Ranma's face. Ranma said a few muffled words into the cloth gag that Nabiki couldn't make out. The Saotome woman reached behind Ranma's head and undid the gag.

"Mom, please let me go." Ranma started another coughing fit that sounded like she was going to hack up her lungs.

"I want to but you're－ not right in the head." Nodoka answered slowly.

"Not to mention that you drink blood and live at night." Nabiki pointed out, picking up her chair to move it closer to the red head before sitting back down. "So do you actually burst into flames?"

"Nabiki this is no time to be combative." Nodoka chastised her.

"You're not curious at all?" She shrugged. "How often do you have a vampire sitting in front of you?"

"The sun doesn't do anything, we just don't like it." Ranma answered her earlier question with a slight cough at the end.

"Why were you trying to drag me out of my shop?" Ukyo butted in.

"Master." Ranma stopped, looking like she wanted to throw up. "Master said he would share his gift with whoever I brought to him."

"You wanted to turn me into a vampire?" Ukyo all but screeched. "You really aren't Ranchan."

"Ucchan." Ranma pleaded. "It's so wonderful being a vampire, I just wanted you to be like me." Nabiki caught Nodoka's hard look at she stepped back away from Ranma.

"And would it have mattered if I said no?" Ukyo pressed.

"I didn't say yes when I was turned, you would have understood afterwards." Ranma answered.

"So what's so wonderful about being a vampire?" Nabiki decided to ask. She knew that this Ranma was off mentally, but it was better than sitting in silence.

"Everything." Ranma replied, slumping a bit in her chair at a happy memory. "I'm stronger, faster, I can change my shape at will, I'm immortal, and blood." The girl purred. "When you're done eating it's like your body is on fire. It's all you can do not to－ hmm－ touch yourself, and when you do." Ranma trailed off with a rather perverted smile on her face.

'Wow, am I happy that Akane isn't here right now.' Nabiki thought, noticing that Ukyo was as surprised as she was by Ranma's comment.

"I do not think anything that this vampire has done to you could be described as wonderful." Nodoka walked away from Ranma, clearly disturbed by the admission of sexuality from her son turned daughter. "It will be good when this stain on our honor is over with."

Nabiki shared a look with Ukyo and Konatsu, the male kunoichi blushing furiously. Nabiki did have other concerns on her mind than the cook and her male waitress. "So if it's so great to be a vampire－ why did your master play with your head?"

"He didn't do anything to me." Ranma answered as if Nabiki was an idiot. "Cologne is just angry that I'm happy and she can't get me to marry Shampoo. I'm free and she can't handle it. She's probably angry that I have more money than I know what to do with too." Nabiki's left eyebrow rose briefly. "It's not like the humans I eat will need it."

"You kill people and steal their money?" Ukyo asked angrily. "You're a monster."

'Not all that monstrous.' Nabiki considered. She took people's money enough to know that leaving them broke wasn't the nicest thing to do. Honestly Nabiki wondered about this vampire thing. Getting horny after eating sounded like an inconvenience, but she did always enjoy the night life. Immortality, freedom from responsibilities, power, and money those things spoke to her. Maybe she was looking at things the wrong way.

X x x x x x

Ranma wiped at her eyes with the back of her forearm, Resting against a corner of her prison, she could feel that the walls had become weak and spongy, but after an hour of beating on them she had given up. Her mother's comment had been a factor. As much as Ranma wanted to end her life, to hear such a callous declaration that she was a stain on the family honor was another matter. She had no choice in becoming a vampire and had no control over ending it.

Kasumi turned out to be alright, which improved Ranma's mood. That the person who had replaced her was manipulating Nabiki removed that improvement. The longer she remained in control, the more competent she seemed to get.

Looking down at her wrists, she saw the angry burns from the chains keeping her to the chair in the real world. Thinking about it, the draining influence of the silver was likely what was weakening the prison. Maybe if she was held long enough she would be able to get free. This led her to another question, what would happen if she did? Would there be a battle for supremacy? Some kind of melding? Would it even change anything? Leading to her floating around in this world where she could only watch the outside world.

A feeling of dread crept over her, it had only been a short time now in this mental prison, if she had to be in here for years she would go insane. Could she even go insane was a scarier thought. Outside, daylight was starting to appear through the covered windows at the front of the shop. She had never seen the sun since becoming a vampire and the light quickly grew so intense that the outside Ranma had to close her eyes and turn away from it.

Ranma knew that the sun wouldn't hurt her unless she was out in direct sunlight, and even then it would be at most a bad sunburn. The personality in control of her body begged and pleaded enough that Cologne had Shampoo drag her into a back room where it was darker. The other Ranma still couldn't sleep and Ranma smiled that if she had to suffer then so did her body snatcher.

She could hear voices discussing plans for the next night, but for the day they would go about a slightly normal routine, and then meet back here before sundown. Ranma was happy that she knew someone capable of doing this. If Cologne wasn't around, then there would be little any of them could have done to protect themselves.

Distracted as she was, she missed Nabiki removing the lock holding the chains on her body, but when the burning suddenly stopped, she noticed. "What's she doing?" Ranma stood up in her prison.

"Come on, we have to go before they notice." Nabiki told the Ranma outside. Inside, Ranma could feel that her body was weak from the silver exposure, and would be too weak to take on Cologne if she noticed. But that was still more than enough for everyone else. The two didn't remain in the shop, quickly running out the back door before the other personality picked up Nabiki and started to sprint across rooftops.

X x x x x x

Nabiki was jostled around as Ranma made good time across the roof tops. She would have preferred to be held tight to a strong manly chest during this trip, but she would take what she could get. Feeling Ranma slip for a moment on a roof tile, she nearly cried out before the vampire recovered, and quickly dropped to the ground.

"Trouble?" Nabiki asked.

"I－ I just need to rest for a moment." The red head leaned against the wall of a building, a hand covering her eyes.

"You said the sun didn't do anything."

"I'm just tired, that silver really drained me. That and it's really bright." She finished with a whine.

"I can see that." Nabiki didn't prod but she inspected the burn marks on Ranma's skin that were slowly healing, and with how the red head was dressed, anybody would be able to see them. "How far are we from－ wherever?"

"Not too far." Ranma replied, rubbing at the burns on her right shoulder.

"Well we can't really have you walking looking like that." Nabiki grabbed Ranma and pulled the vampire to where they were better hidden. "Let's switch tops." She suggested, unbuttoning her blouse which had long sleeves.

"Good idea." Ranma nodded and they quickly switched clothing. Tugging on the bottom, Ranma's top was one size too small, but nothing that would be seen as abnormal.

"So why are you a girl?" She adjusted her breasts to sit better. "And with a fashion sense?" Nabiki had checked out the tab and this was designer label clothing.

"I was turned as a girl, I'm not a guy anymore." The red head answered casually.

"Woah, and you're fine with that?" Nabiki could tell that Ranma had changed in the past few months, but she would still expect him to be freaking out over this, or at least having some difficulty admitting it.

"Oh, I wasn't at first, but now I can't imagine being a guy."

Nabiki worried about how happy Ranma sounded about that, but looking into the red head's teal eyes, she figured that it was something that had a proper story to it that explained it. "Do you think they followed us?"

"No way, humans can't catch vampires." Ranma boasted.

"Are all vampires as strong and fast as you?"

When Cologne had first explained that a vampire was targeting people around her, and had been able to defeat Ranma. She had been scared of that. Being a young attractive woman, while other young attractive women are going missing due to a vampire who can beat one of the strongest, most skilled people she knew, how could she not be scared? Being the predator was always better than the prey. The few times where she had been in a position of weakness were not times she wished to repeat.

"Master is stronger." The vampire crossed her arms and nodded sagely. "And I am very skilled, but you would be very strong and fast. You'd be able to beat Shampoo I bet, maybe even Mousse or Ryoga. I haven't had much of a chance to test myself."

"So what's the drawback? What's the price for this?" She asked, pretty much having decided to go through with it.

"Drawback?" Ranma's face scrunched up into a frustrated pout. "Humans don't really like it if they find out."

"No I mean more like physical stuff. You already said you get all hot and bothered after a meal, what else?" She already considered wearing sunglasses during the day a small price to pay.

"You can only die if someone stabs you in the heart with a wooden stake?"

"That would probably be a positive." Left unsaid was that it would kill her at the moment, so she wasn't planning on being stabbed ever.

"Um, you'll be as you are now forever? Unless you decide to change what you look like."

"Again, a positive."

"No babies?"

"I won't ever be pushing out a kid, so not much of a negative. How about that you kill people for food?" She asked, thinking that while she didn't care much for other people that may be something that would cause her some distress.

"Oh no, that's perfectly natural. Just like a human eating a fish."

"So no lingering remorse about ending someone's life?"

"If it's someone that you like maybe." Ranma cocked her head to one side. Nabiki caught the vampire's eyes once again and she accepted the answer at face value.

"Alright, let's get going before Shampoo magically finds you."

X x x x x x

Nabiki rode the elevator up to the top floor with Ranma. A doorman had greeted Ranma at the door to let them in. This was clearly a high scale place, with a large main lobby, and simple yet elegant decorations. 'Oh yes, I can definitely see living in places like this.' The apartment was in the corner and Ranma held her hand over the door knob briefly as a small click marked it unlocking.

'Some weird mind powers too?' Nabiki realized how good of a thief a vampire would be.

Inside, she couldn't see anything once the door had closed behind her. Blackout curtains covered over all the walls, letting in only tiny slivers of light between them. 'Shouldn't I be nervous about this?' She wondered, this whole situation should be directing her away from Ranma, not following her to the lair of a vampire.

"Sorry I'm late Master." Ranma said from behind her.

As her eyes adjusted, she made out a tall figure sitting in a plush chair, who reached out to turn on a lamp to his side. The light revealed a man of mixed descent, with teal eyes like Ranma, and wearing black silk pajamas. "I was wondering why you took so long."

As soon as the man spoke, something clicked in Nabiki, and she realized suddenly what she was doing. Squashing down the sudden urge to run, she knew that Ranma could easily stop her, and was positioned right next to the only exit. Glancing at the blissfully smiling red head, Nabiki gulped. 'Weird mental powers.' She had been tricked, manipulated, and now she was at the mercy of two beings who would have no qualms about eating her alive.

"Nabiki helped me out and wants to become a vampire. Isn't that great Master?" Ranma chirped, clasping her hands in front of her chest.

"I uh－ couldn't just let them torture you like that." Nabiki couldn't stop her voice from quivering. "But I think I want some more time to think about that vampire thing." She added. 'Okay, keep calm, you can get out of this.'

"You came all the way here." The male vampire stood up and even from across the room he towered over her. "Please, sit." He motioned towards a couch matching the chair.

"I've been up all night and I should really be finding a ride back home." She took a single step back and a hand found it's way to the small of her back.

"Master wants you to sit." The girl said flatly.

"I suppose that wouldn't hurt." She smiled nervously and went over to take a seat. "You have a nice penthouse." She pointed out.

"It's getting very small." The master vampire took a seat very close to her. Ranma as well took a seat on the opposite side of her, making her the middle of a vampire sandwich. "We'll have to move soon and find something with more rooms."

"Maybe I could help you with that." She spoke up. "As a human I mean."

"Humans aren't needed." He told her, leaning in far too closely for her comfort.

"Shouldn't vampires be sleeping during the day?" She tried a new tactic. "Wouldn't you want to talk about things tonight?" If she could get them to go to sleep then she could get out of here and then beg Cologne for forgiveness.

"No, this is a fine time to do this, and you'll wake with us tonight." He leaned in closer.

"I changed my mind." She tried to stand up but again she was stopped by a single hand on her shoulder that nearly crushed her into the cushions. "Please, I really don't want to be a vampire." Nabiki tried not to beg, to sound confident, and from a position to negotiate. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Ranma suddenly clutch her head in pain.

"Something wrong?" The male vampire asked the red head.

"No, I'm fine." Ranma answered.

"No more distractions." The master vampire suddenly grabbed her far shoulder and twisted Nabiki to face him.

"I'll scream." She pushed her hands against his chest, trying to hold him off. "These walls can't be that thick."

"If you scream." He easily overpowered her and pushed her hands to the side. "I'll turn you into a ghoul, do you know what a ghoul is?" Nabiki shook her head side to side. "It's a revolting corpse that craves human flesh. You would be conscious of all your actions and you would hate every part of your new existence. Scream－ and I rape you, then turn you into a ghoul. Then, I'll make sure everyone of your family members are fed to you."

"Ranma－ help me please." She pleaded with the red head, tears blurring her vision. "Please help me."

"Don't worry, you'll be much happier as a vampire." Ranma answered her plea with a Kasumi-like smile.

Nabiki didn't have any more time to beg before the vampire sunk his teeth into her neck. Hissing in pain, she struggled to push him away but he didn't budge. She could feel him sucking her blood out as she grew weaker and weaker. Soon enough she couldn't even hold her head up, falling limply against the couch, the vampire shifting his position to stay biting her. Just before she lost consciousness, she felt something warm enter her cold body where she was being bitten, and it rapidly started to spread through her body.

X x x x x x

Shampoo sighed as she began to pack up the eating utensils. She would get through losing Ranma on her own time, but right now she had to help pack. A task that would have been easier if The Tendo patriarch and the violent kitchen destroyer Akane, weren't demanding that Cologne help return Nabiki.

"What are you going to do to get my daughter back?" Soun demanded.

"Nothing." Cologne answered, ignoring him as she was doing her own task to help leave before night fall.

"What do you mean nothing? You wanted us to come here because you said you had some way to fight vampires. Why are you just stopping now?" Akane asked.

"Because you stupid little girl." Cologne barked. "My entire plan was to capture Ranma which left only one vampire to deal with. I doubt we'll have any kind of chance to get Ranma again, and your daughter is likely already well on her way to being a vampire. That means three vampires to deal with. The only choice I have is to cut my losses and save Shampoo from the same fate."

"You selfish old hag." Soun responded to Cologne.

"I'm sorry, but if you can come up with a way to find where they went, and Nabiki hasn't been turned yet, then how do you expect me to magically solve this?"

"I－ don't know." The emotional man answered.

"Cologne-san, isn't there anything you can do?" Kasumi asked politely.

Shampoo could see her great grandmother thinking this over and wanted to speak up and tell her to say no. They had no requirement to assist the Tendos. The family had always been obstacles and obstacles were for killing, not helping.

"Where did you say you originally saw Ranma?" The elderly woman asked Akane.

"Great grandmother!" Shampoo finally spoke up, switching to Chinese. "Why would you want to help them?"

"Because." Cologne remained speaking Japanese. "Ranma asked and we should honor his last request." The old woman closed her eyes. "But only one more night. Nabiki will need to feed and won't have a vampires full abilities until then. After tonight, I won't risk any further action."

X x x x x x

Ranma was horrified at what had just happened to Nabiki, not even the middle Tendo had done anything worthy of that kind of treatment. Thankfully her Master hadn't made her a ghoul or simply made a meal out of her. When the other Ranma took Nabiki into the bathroom and curled up with her in the bathtub as the change from human to vampire ran it's full course, she snarled to herself, not being able to hate the girl for being what he had made her.

Preparing herself to spend the day in darkness, she was surprised when another red headed form appeared outside of her prison. Like her, she was naked, and looking around confused at her new location. Leaping against the wall, she startled the doppleganger, before being bounced back by the wall. Snarling, she paced in her prison like the caged animal that she was.

"You." Ranma said hatefully.

"Who are you?" The double asked cluelessly.

"I'm Ranma you idiot! The owner of that body you're walking around in!" She found one of the walls and punched it out of frustration.

"But I'm Ranma." The other protested.

"The hell you are! You're just some－ thing that he made to replace me."

"If Master had to do that then you were definitely being bad."

"Master is bad, don't you get that?"

"Master is not bad!" The double screamed.

"You're just as bad as he is." Ranma wanted to rage, she wanted to destroy the crazy girl in front of her, but all she could think of was Nabiki begging for help while the girl did nothing. "You let him hurt Nabiki like he did me. Like he did us." She added trying to see if she could get to this crazy girl. "If you were me you'd care."

"She'll be happier as a vampire." The other Ranma said without conviction, seeming to agree with her to an extent.

"Maybe she will, but she deserved to have a choice, and not having to live worrying that your precious Master will twist her into something like you and lock the real Nabiki up like I am."

"You wanted to know how to kill Master, you were bad." The copy changed the topic.

"Master took away everything from me and he wants to do the same to everyone that I know. How could I not want to fight back?" Placing both hands against the wall, she dug her fingers in as much as she could.

"You－ you were bad." The red head on the other side of the wall came closer.

"Was I bad enough that I deserve to be locked up here, forced to watch everything you do?" Ranma's question caused the desired reaction, making the girl question herself.

"If you wanted to kill Master then yes."

"I don't know why I'm even trying to get through to you, he made you into a willing and stupid slave." Turning her back, she leaned against the wall, and slid down to a sitting position.

"If I'm so stupid then why are you in here while I'm free?" The double asked, trying to poke Ranma through the prison. An electric shock shot through Ranma and for a brief instant she was in the bathtub looking at Nabiki who was facing her. A moment later she was back in the prison, the fake Ranma laying outside like she had just been run over by the Akane train.

'If I get rid of her, then I go free.' A wicked smile spread over Ranma's face. Of course now she had to figure out a way to do that.

X x x x x x

"Are you up yet Nabiki?"

Nabiki scrunched her eyes shut tighter, refusing to respond to Ranma, who knew for a fact that she was awake, and had been for the past half hour. When she had first woken, memories had come back to her of how Ranma had manipulated her. Played to her greed and lead her back to this place to be forcibly turned into a vampire. That part was impossible to remember, but every part of her told her that she had said no.

"Hungry?" The irritating voice of Ranma asked. Nabiki kept herself from answering, hoping, wishing that this was nothing more than a bad dream that she would wake up from. She could ignore the strange feelings she currently felt for the red head, and the unnamed Master that she couldn't help but think of fondly for the moment.

But she could not ignore the painful gnawing of her stomach that drew more and more attention the more times Ranma mentioned food. The fangs her tongue kept running over practically tingled at the thought of blood, a thought that her mind couldn't help but come back to.

"Hmm." Ranma seemed to be thinking of something before Nabiki felt the other body leave her side. "If you don't get up, I'm going to turn the water on." The evil red head turned the handle just long enough to splash her bare feet with water.

"Fine you little bitch." Nabiki spat, climbing out of the bathtub. During the day, it seemed like she had been redressed in a set of flannel pajamas. Ranma had a hurt look on her face, ataken back by the venom in her voice.

"What's wrong? Are you still changing? I figured it would be done by now. Well you do have to go through this kind of vampire puberty for the next couple weeks where your senses are kind of out of control but that's nothing to be worried about."

"What's wrong? What's wrong!" Nabiki's voice rose to hysterical levels.

"You don't have to shout." Ranma tried to pacify her.

"I'll shout if I want! After what you did to me, you think you can be all nice, and things will just blow over?"

Ranma shrinked back further during Nabiki's outburst, actually looking ashamed of herself. "I'm－ I'm sorry if you feel that way."

"No you're not, don't sit there and lie to me whoever you are. The guy did do something to your head because you are clearly not Ranma." Crossing her arms, she glared at the smaller girl.

"So what if I'm not?" The girl started to sniffle. "Ranma was bad and Master had to punish her. I'm Ranma now and she'll just have to deal with it."

'She'll?' Nabiki blinked several times, confused over that phrasing.

"I'm happy as a vampire, you'll be too." Ranma shifted back into a happy mood. "But we need food!" She announced, running up to grab Nabiki around the waist and pull her out the doorway to a bedroom. Nabiki noticed that the vampire who had violated her was not here.

"Let me go." She finally pushed the demented Ranma away.

"This is where Master lets me keep all my clothes." Ranma slid open a closet exposing a great deal of clothing. Underneath were small drawers that likely held the rest. "You can borrow anything you like. Sisters do that right? I know you've borrowed from Akane all the time." Shrugging away the detail, Ranma started to sort through the clothing without waiting for a response.

'Oh Ranma, what did that guy do to you?' She glanced down at the pale skin of her arms. 'What did he do to me?' Other than the hunger she felt, she didn't immediately notice a big difference in her new self, and had no way to know what to expect from this.

"Ooh this is perfect!" Ranma happily skipped over to the bed and laid out a green and red dress that were nearly identical otherwise. "We can match!"

"I'm in hell."

X x x x x x

Staying off to the side and making herself as unnoticeable as possible, Cologne, watched the crowd for the two vampires that could still be in the area. This was the shopping district that Akane had seen Ranma originally. Shampoo was positioned within sight also searching for the pair. With the amulet on her, she should be safe from any attack a vampire may attempt save throwing something at her.

It was getting late and the crowds of shoppers were starting to thin out. Cologne was already ready to call it a night. From her research into the deaths that the original vampire had caused, he moved all over Tokyo, taking young girls in random places. There was little reason to believe that Ranma and Nabiki would show up here.

Luck seemed to be on their side though as she caught sight of bright red hair and a familiar body wearing a rather tight and revealing green dress. Ranma was walking with her arms wrapped around Nabiki possessively, the middle Tendo wearing a matching red dress. Both had a more normal skin tone and a light blush graced Ranma's face while Nabiki looked like she was going to combust.

Neither had caught sight of her and Shampoo so the world was truly smiling on them tonight.

X x x x x x

Nabiki had known intellectually that this would happen. Ranma had made it rather clear how she got excited after drinking blood. Of course now she knew that the Ranma who had said that was not the real Ranma, who never would have admitted to pleasuring herself as a girl in front of Nodoka. That didn't make it any less true. Actually it wasn't really that overpowering and if Ranma would just stop touching her, she would have just ignored it until it went away.

The act of taking blood itself had been easy. Someone like her, who was predisposed to a lack empathy, had been able to accept the powerful urge without trouble. In a way it had been a very intimate moment, where only she and her meal had existed. Right before the brainwashed Ranma had started to kiss and molest her, clearly intent on doing a different brand of intimate activity right there in the alley next to two dead bodies. Thankfully she had been able to dissuade the amorous red head for now, but she did not seem willing to give it up completely.

Ignoring the way Ranma's fingers were gently rubbing up against side, she focused on how powerful she felt. Walking past a bike rack, she used two fingers to pinch the metal, easily deforming the steel in an act that would have been impossible before. 'At least I got something out of this.' Nabiki closed her eyes and moved a bit closer to Ranma when the crazy girl's hand strayed up to the side of her breast, the tips of her fingers like a feather tickling her flesh.

"Stop that." She batted Ranma's hand away.

Keeping her focus was difficult, all of her senses seemed strained to the max. The thundering of human heart beats around her, the ability to feel the individual fibers of her clothing, to see into ever dark crevice like she had a flashlight, and the myriad of smells. Add to that Ranma's continued violation of her personal space and she was very tempted to let Ranma do what she so clearly wanted to do. Being an open minded liberal sort of girl, it may be interesting to experiment now that she was a creature of darkness. What did she have to lose?

The doorman paid particularly close attention as they passed. Nabiki wanted to speak up, try and tell the man who had happened, even get him to call some authority. But how could she explain what had happened in a few sentences without sounding like a lunatic? 'Help! I've been turned into a vampire, and I need help getting away from my former brother in law, who's now a brain washed vampire girl who's is planning to have her way with me!'

She sighed. 'Yea right, he'd probably just ask to watch.'

Nabiki was trapped and the only people who might help would be just as likely to kill her.

X x x x x x

One application of memory techniques, and Shampoo had found out what floor the two vampires had went to and which apartment they lived in, afterwards she had erased the man's memory of them. Once up on the top floor, she helped Cologne fix a packet of exploding garlic powder mixed with silver flakes to the wall above the door. Each of them had more that they would place in the other doorways of the hall that would fill the entire hall with the material. They would all be triggered at the same time, so it would be impossible for him to dodge.

Shampoo didn't like this plan at all and didn't trust the amulet Cologne had given her to keep her safe from the vampire. Supposedly she would be the bait and while the powder did its work to distract the vampire, if he tried to use her as a shield or to attack her, the amulet would repel him violently.

"Remember, when you see him, do not look into his eyes or think of the explosives." Cologne instructed.

"Yes." She nodded.

Once the vampire was confused by the garlic and silver, there were two options. The first was that they use some silver plated chain to take him out of the fight. That way they could attempt to free Ranma and Nabiki by giving them his blood. Then they would kill him. The other was a backup plan and that was to simply kill him if the first failed. Right now they had no idea what that would do to the other two vampires, but whatever it was, it was better than letting him get away.

X x x x x x

Ranma had it; she had a finger hold in the corner of her prison. Digging and clawing at the seam, her feet peddled against the floor as she pushed her fingers deeper in the wall. Grunting in exertion, she ignored the muted pleasurable sensations that her body was feeling as her jailer and Nabiki did things that made her blush. Suddenly her fingers punctured the prison, tearing small holes in it. Ranma would have gone further but she dropped to the floor as she suddenly felt everything from the outside world at once.

At the same time that happened, outside the other Ranma cried out in pain, and tumbled off the bed to lay awkwardly with her body half on the master vampire's coffin. Free from outside distractions, Ranma started to tear at the wall; small chips broke away from the invisible prison at first, but quickly larger pieces came free. Getting one hole bigger than the others, she pulled and pushed at it, desperate for her freedom.

"Stop it!" The fake Ranma appeared in front of her.

"Yea right!" Ranma yelled back.

"You might kill me!"

"All the better." Finally she had a hole big enough to pass through, and she dove out. Rolling, she jumped at the only other form, attempting to grab hold of her. The other Ranma avoided her grab, moving with the same speed Ranma possessed. "Hold still." She growled.

"I'll protect myself." The fake Ranma assumed a stance.

"I'm going to love kicking your ass."

X x x x x x

"Well this is great." Nabiki sat on the edge of the bed, having placed Ranma's comatose form up on it in a haphazard fashion. She had quickly cleaned herself off after getting over having her bed partner suddenly drop into a coma, putting on the same pajama's Ranma had put her in during the day since she didn't want to go diving into Ranma's wardrobe. The other vampire was covered by a towel and Nabiki had done a little bit to clean her off.

She was worried about the crazy girl. Nabiki hated Ranma for doing this to her but it would be infinitely worse if something had happened to her former brother in law. "You got me into this, you can't turn into a vegetable on the first night after you got into my panties." She could only imagine Akane's reaction if she found out that Ranma, or someone running Ranma's body, had done that with Nabiki.

Resting her hand on Ranma's wrist, she wondered what the real Ranma had gone through before being altered into this. Living here all alone with that vampire, adjusting to this without anyone for support. Nabiki couldn't see how anyone capable of rewriting someone's personality could be supportive. Horrible was the only way she could describe it.

She jumped in shock when Ranma sat up straight in the bed, her eyes looking around wildly before settling on Nabiki. "I－ I'm free." Ranma whispered, a look of pure joy washing over the red head's face.

"You're what?" Nabiki asked, worried about what the unstable vampire would do.

"Nabiki." Ranma switched emotions to one of utter devastation. "I'm so sorry!" She wailed, gathering Nabiki up in a hug. "I couldn't do anything." She cried into Nabiki's shirt.

"Is it really you?" Nabiki sat without doing anything as Ranma started to squeeze her tightly.

"Yes, I killed that copy." Ranma pulled away, smiling sadly. "If it wasn't for those chains Cologne put on me I don't think I would have ever gotten free."

"Free from what?"

"I'll tell you later, we have to get out of here." Ranma looked around nervously. "No that won't work, he'll be able to find us." The smaller girl slumped into herself. "I can't go back, I can't let him do that to me again." She started to hyper ventilate. "You gotta kill me Nabiki."

"What do you mean kill you?" Nabiki wasn't about to let Ranma get out of this and leave her.

"Please－ I can't do it myself." Ranma begged, kneeling on the bed in front of her with her hands clasped in front of her chest. "Don't let him do that to me again."

"You want me to deal with this alone?" Nabiki frowned at Ranma.

"I－ no." Ranma bowed her head. "He－ locked me away in a box, it was dark during the day, and I saw everything she did at night."

"Then we have to stop him before he realizes what's happened." Nabiki tried to imagine what Ranma had been going through and couldn't.

"He can read our minds, as soon as we try anything, he'll be able to stop us." Ranma explained.

"What about if he's distracted?"

"It'd be our only chance."

They had no time to discuss a plan before the lock to the apartment door caught Nabiki's ears. Ranma's eyes immediately widened in horror and she looked around fearfully. 'Damn it Ranma, calm down you idiot or else he's going to realize what's going on.' She wanted to tell the other vampire but the one causing Ranma's distress would hear.

"Come out girls, we have guests." Her Master's voice called out as the door closed.

"Just a second." Nabiki called out. Cupping her hands around Ranma's left ear she tried to whisper in the lowest voice she could. "Play the part." Ranma nodded, closing her eyes, and seeming to realize what she needed to do already.

Out in the main room of the apartment she found the master vampire and two humans, Shampoo and Cologne. Shampoo was being held captive by her Master, while Cologne was trying to make him explode with her glare.

"Where is the other?" He asked her.

"Ranma's getting dressed." She answered, wondering how exactly she should be acting.

"A birthday gift." He forcibly pulled a round pendant hanging from Shampoo's neck, and threw it to her. Catching it out of the air without any difficulty, she briefly inspected it, finding it to be a bland gray color on the outside. "They honestly thought that it would protect this one from us." He explained cruelly, breathing in deeply through his nose next to Shampoo's neck. "Throw the staff away."

Cologne looked at her long staff once before throwing it to fall at the vampire's feet. "How did you know what we were planning?" She demanded.

"I read the doorman's mind every time I enter. I saw you and this tasty morsel here getting information from him." He explained, sitting down in the plush chair, and forcing Shampoo to sit in his lap.

Nabiki looked between the three with a sense of dread. She could literally feel the fear coming off of Shampoo like waves that broke over her. The situation made her think of what she now knew Ranma had to deal with. Having to watch a situation that she was powerless to stop.

"Don't worry my dear." The vampire purred to Shampoo, his right hand wrapped around from the back of her neck to grip her throat. "You're too beautiful to let die. It'd be much better if you existed as my pretty little servant for eternity, don't you think."

"Shampoo say no." The purple haired girl replied defiantly.

"Hello Master." Ranma butted in, speaking in a bubbly voice, and skipping from the room in pajamas to stand at the side of the male vampire.

"I was wondering when you would show up." He laughed to himself. "Isn't it nice of your friends to come searching for you?"

"Uh－ yes Master." Ranma nodded absently.

"Go and make sure she doesn't move." He told Ranma and then looked to her like the same order applied. They both stood on opposite sides of Cologne and slowly gripped her small arms just to keep her in place.

'Please, please, please don't hurt me.' Nabiki prayed to herself, imagining that the old woman could still cause a great deal of pain to her.

"Once I've turned your precious great granddaughter into one of us, I think I'll keep you around to be her first meal." Laughing evilly to himself, he didn't wait before sinking his fangs into Shampoo's throat.

Nabiki watched as he began to drain Shampoo of blood. 'This is it, that's how it happened with me.' She let go of Cologne's arm, forgetting that she was supposed to be helping with this horrible act. Nabiki was happy that she didn't remember it, seeing the pained look on Shampoo's face. Movement to her right caught her attention. It was Ranma clearing the distance to where the vampire sat draining Shampoo. He released Shampoo's neck, staring in surprise at Ranma, who grabbed Cologne's staff, and plunged it through his chest, impaling him to the chair. His eyes were wide, his arms hanging out to the side, and his blood coated mouth open in shock.

Shocked herself by the sudden violence, her eyes caught Shampoo trying to stem the blood coming from her neck, and found that she couldn't look away from the red liquid. Even when Cologne grabbed her and yanked her towards the staked vampire, she couldn't stop. If she hadn't already drained someone of blood earlier, there would have been nothing to stop her from attacking Shampoo.

"Snap out of it!" Cologne hit her in the head.

"Wha－ what?" She asked, forcibly dragging her eyes from the blood.

"You need to take blood from him." Cologne pointed towards the soon to be dead vampire.

"Why?" Nabiki didn't want to take anything into herself from him.

"You're a servant vampire, if he dies, you'll likely die as well. If you take blood you'll be free. So just do it!" Cologne shoved her towards the man and went to help Shampoo.

"Help－ me." The master vampire weakly and weakly tried to grab at her.

"Like you helped me?" Nabiki smirked sinisterly and grabbed his arm. Ranma needed no prompting and actually latched on to his neck. She was more discrete and simply bit into his wrist.

X x x x x x

"Why did you help us?" Ranma asked Cologne while pulling away from the still living vampire. He was clinging to life, even after being stabbed through the heart by a wooden stake, and having nearly all of his blood drained by her and Nabiki. Licking some last drops of blood from her lips, she could feel it, he wasn't her Master anymore.

A toothy grin spread over her face and she drew back her hand into a knife strike that chopped off his head. It bounced several times before coming to a rest face down. So much more, she wanted him to suffer in a way that made her captivity seem tame. Unfortunately she knew no way to do that so being able to mutilate his corpse would have to suffice.

"Don't think of it as saving you." The elderly woman answered, having found a first aid kit in the bath area, and applying a bandage to Shampoo's neck. "I need information about vampires, information that's not going to fail when needed."

"Like this thing?" Nabiki held up the amulet.

"Yes like that." Cologne finished with Shampoo's neck. "So what better way to get information than to ask the source? Maybe start with how you're yourself again?"

"I think those chains you wrapped me in did it. That bastard put me in this box inside my head, when those chains were on me, it became kind of like jello, when－ something was happening earlier, I was able to get out and kill her in my head." Ranma explained, skipping over the lesbian sex that Nabiki had been engaged in with Ranma's body.

"No lasting effects?"

Ranma blinked several times, considering Cologne's question. Everything had happened so fast, she felt like she always did right now, but then again the clone seemed to think that as well. "Seems like it." She finally answered, resolving to be diligent in making sure she didn't start with for that bastard to be back in her life.

"Shampoo sorry she fail." The purple haired girl told the elderly woman.

"None of that, it was my fault." Cologne rolled up her left sleeve to expose a pair of dark circular scars on the top of her forearm. "I'm just sorry that you had to be marked for my mistake."

"Joketsuzoku wear scars with honor, no?" Shampoo smiled weakly.

"Yes we do." Cologne patted Shampoo on the shoulder.

"So what are we going to do now?" Nabiki asked her after the two had finished talking, putting as much distance as she could from Shampoo. Ranma was purposely not breathing to avoid being distracted, she would have to tell Nabiki that she didn't have to breathe soon.

"Burn the body." Cologne had a habitual reaction to reach for her cane before realizing that it was still buried in someone's chest. "I expect that he'll go up quickly."

"Wait on that a minute, I have stuff I don't want to lose." Ranma gathered up her laptop and music player and put them in a satchel bag she had bought shortly after the previous two to carry her little computer around. Packing up the clothing she actually liked in a duffel bag, she then dug through the file cabinet buried in the closet, and found documents detailing where the money had been kept as well as others for the fake ID that he used.

"Oh, I should probably get that too." She shifted the lifeless body of her former master and pulled out the wallet in the back of his pants. Checking the contents there was a credit card, some cash, and a fake picture ID. Throwing it all the duffel bag, she was finished with this place, and even if it wasn't going to be burned she would never return.

"Why are you taking that?" Nabiki asked her. The middle Tendo was hovering at the door, clearly wanting to leave as soon as possible.

"This worthless bastard." Ranma kicked the body. "Made me steal money from wealthy old men then he kept it all for himself." She shivered in disgust at a particularly unpleasant memory. "He's got it all saved in up an account."

Ranma was suddenly overwhelmed by the events of the past hour, falling into the couch to sit staring at the former vampire. "Please tell me this is real." She spoke in a tiny voice. "That I'm not just dreaming and he's really dead."

"This is real Ranma." Nabiki appeared in front of her, gripping her shoulders. The middle Tendo was smiling and even started to laugh. "Now snap out of it because I want to get home."

"Home." Ranma whispered, imagining what it would be like to see the humans she cared about again, while ignoring anything that could go wrong.

X x x x x x

Walking through Nerima towards the Nekohanten where everyone should be, Ranma felt strange being the only one carrying something. Well she was carrying multiple things, the duffel bag filled with the clothing she liked, her computer bag, and Cologne had decided to use her as a pack animal by riding on her head. She actually didn't mind, in fact she was happy that Cologne was treating her so casually after everything.

She was concerned about Shampoo though. Having been bitten by a vampire, it would have been highly possible for a small amount to have mixed with the vampire's saliva. If even a tiny amount had been pushed back into the girl's blood stream, then it would be a slow poison that would kill her, turn her into a ghoul, or even a vampire if it worked through her system fast enough.

"Shampoo, you feeling alright?" Ranma asked, the Joketsuzoku girl looking pale enough to be a vampire, and had none of her usual energy.

"Shampoo fine." She straightened up. "Thank Ai－ Ranma for concern." She added with a sad look directed at Ranma.

"Well if you start getting weaker you're probably not alright." Ranma cursed her former Master. The only way to find out if Shampoo was infected was to wait and if she was it was already too late.

"Shampoo will need a nice hot meal and some liquids before she can go to bed." Cologne laughed to herself. "I think this will be the first time food will be delivered to the Nekohanten."

"Why's that?" Ranma asked, confused over why they didn't have food available at a restaurant. The restaurant itself was finally within sight.

"Until I was convinced to try one more night, I was planning on leaving before sundown. So everything is packed up."

"I wonder how surprised everybody is going to be." She mused, being the first one to reach the building, and open the front door.

"Wait!" Cologne tried to warn her, but her foot had already passed the threshold. Vaguely Ranma felt Cologne leap away from her with her bags before Ranma was repelled with enough force to throw her halfway through the concrete wall on the far side of the street.

"This seems－ kind of familiar." She groaned, pulling herself back through the wall.

"I forgot to tell you that there's a one way barrier there." Cologne chuckled along with Shampoo and Nabiki. "Good to know that works."

"Nabiki!" Soun wailed, appearing next to his daughter, and hugging her. "You're alright!"

"Dad!" Nabiki exclaimed, squirming in her father's grasp, mortified over being seen in public being hugged by her father. Even though it was late and the street was deserted.

Any kind of happy reunion was halted when Akane saw Ranma standing off to the side. "You!" She pointed an accusing finger at her.

"Akane, wait." Nabiki tried to free herself from Soun without hurting him.

Ranma didn't know where Akane had found the stone maneki neko statue, but she knew how much it hurt when it was thrown at her, and caved her head in.

Her limbs twitched erratically and Ranma struggled to work out the strange feelings brought on by not having a brain. It actually felt rather pleasant in a way. Like when she would retreat into herself to get away from some situation her former Master had put her in. Noting that someone had removed the murder device from her head, there really wasn't much she could do when someone moved her inside of the building.

"What do you mean Ranma's still alive?" Nodoka asked as Ranma was set down somewhere.

'Sheesh give me a minute to pull my head back together.' Ranma would have rolled her eyes but they were still mush.

"Akane, that's the real Ranma now, not that crazy girl." Nabiki said to her sister.

"How was I supposed to know?" Akane answered. "And he's still a vampire."

"So am I now, are you going to stone me too?"

"You should finish this now, there's no more reason to put off ending this stain on the family honor." Nodoka spoke up again.

The statement of her mother made Ranma react instinctively, her head snapping back to normal, the blood that had escaped her even sucked back into her. "If you're going to kill me, at least let me be involved." Ranma spoke while sitting up, her sudden recovery making several of the humans jump. Now that she was free and no longer had someone torturing her, simply ending her life now was as attractive as it was when Nodoka first appeared in her life. "Sides, I'm in too good a mood to have someone shove a wooden stake into my chest." She added.

"I am also not going to see the one who saved my great granddaughters life be killed in front of me." Cologne gave her opinion.

Nodoka gripped her katana tightly, her lips pressed firmly together, and a look of distaste on her face. "Nothing further can be gained here." With a small bow, she grabbed Genma, and left.

"Such an－ awkward woman." Cologne remarked. "As much as I want to question these two, I need to attend to Shampoo, so if you would be so kind to return to your home."

"Yes we should go home." Soun announced.

"Tell me if Shampoo gets weaker." Ranma told the old woman.

"What would you do?" Cologne asked. "If she became a vampire she would die without the Master vampire."

"Doesn't mean I wouldn't want to be there." Ranma grabbed her things and followed the Tendo's out of the shop. Ukyo and Konatsu weren't in attendance, and Ranma knew the likely reason for that.

X x x x x x

Sitting down in the living room, Ranma adjusted her hearing so she couldn't hear Nodoka and Genma discussing her out in the dojo. She had listened for all of a minute before becoming disgusted by her mother who was more angry that she was being unmanly than a vampire who killed people. Genma was angry that she preyed on the weak. They were just going around in circles and Ranma was sick of hearing the word manly.

"Akane, I'm not going to bite." She said without looking back at Akane who was hiding behind the wall in the hallway. "You should probably get some sleep anyways."

"I can't go to sleep with a vampire in the house." The youngest Tendo stepped out quickly as if she hadn't been sitting there for the past five minutes spying on her. "You're really Ranma right? Not that－ whatever she was."

"If I was her I'd be crying over that bastard who made me into a vampire." Ranma smiled sadly at her former fiancée. "Akane is this a picture of me?" She held up a framed picture of the Tendo family, Genma, and a strange boy that she didn't know.

"What kind of question is that? Of course that's you." Akane came in and sat down across the table from her.

"I'm handsome." Gazing fondly at the teen in the picture, she couldn't connect the person contained in it with herself, but he looked so familiar that they could be twins.

"You're ego certainly isn't in trouble." Akane snorted.

Ranma bit down on her lower lip, her vision blurring red as she started to cry. "How could he?" She asked herself. "He said he was supposed to help and to guide me, to tell me what I needed to know." Her shoulders shook and the picture frame cracked under her grip. "But he used me, he treated me like a slave, he－." She couldn't think up a word that fit what he had done to her mind. Clutching the picture to her chest, she closed her eyes, and desperately tried to force the image of the young man on to herself.

"Are you alright?" Akane asked worriedly.

"No－ I'm not." Ranma admitted softly, standing up she left the youngest Tendo to go find the only person who might understand what she was going through, still clutching the picture to her chest.

X x x x x x

Snuggling deeper into the soft blankets of her bed, Nabiki frowned, popping open her eyes to look at the wall across the room. 'I'm not sleepy at all.' It wasn't even like she was too excited to sleep, she was very calm. Far calmer than she should be considering what had happened earlier in the night. She had her first meal as a vampire, got about midway through lesbian sex with a psychotic red head, and witnessed the death of the vampire master she didn't really know. She had even witnessed Ranma becoming a wet smear on the ground by her younger sister only to get up a minute later unharmed.

That she wasn't actually warm was worrying. Being cold blooded took a lot of fun out of simple things like curling up in a blanket. Without a knock, the door to her room swung open, and Ranma stepped in before closing it behind her. The red head didn't say anything before sitting down at the foot of her bed with a picture frame clutched her chest.

"We can't sleep at night, don't bother trying." Ranma said mechanically.

Sitting up, she glared at the other vampire. "So I should just give up and do everything a good little vampire is supposed to do?" She asked angrily.

"Why did you－ with her?" Ranma suddenly shifted into an uncomfortable subject.

"Why?" She quickly listened for the heartbeat of anyone listening in just to make sure her buzz saw of a sister wasn't going to pop in.

"Is it because she was a girl? Or someone who tried to act like a girl and wasn't just some guy in a girl's body?" Ranma asked quickly.

"What are you talking about?"

"This is me right?" Ranma held up a picture that showed her family and the two Saotome men.

"Obviously."

"I can't remember." The other vampire dropped the picture to the bed. "When I first learned how to change forms－ he－ he－ punished me."

"Punished?" Nabiki asked, punished was such a vague word, that she had no way to figure out what had happened.

"He－ went into my head－ and－ and he took my body from me." Ranma's voice caught as she explained it. "I－ only know I'm a man because my memories couldn't be that of a girl."

"It's good that he's dead." Nabiki patted Ranma on the shoulder, having no clue how to comfort anyone. She was usually the one causing people to be distraught.

"And her." Ranma added, likely indicating the false personality.

"And her." Nabiki agreed.

"So then why did you－ with her?" The red head reminded Nabiki suddenly that this had started with Ranma bringing up earlier activities.

"That was." She struggled to answer. Thinking hadn't been her strongpoint earlier and she had assumed that Ranma would be like that forever. Having the real Ranma, who had been there for every moment suddenly want to know why, was a difficult thing to answer.

"You told me you loved me once just so you could jerk me around and torment me. Not even one night with her and you hop right in bed with her." Ranma's stared at her with an impossibly hard look. "Was it because I was a man?"

"Listen Ranma, earlier that was－ that was just because of." Nabiki floundered for a way to justify her actions without alienating Ranma. The other vampire had put her in a no win situation. "Ranma." She slid out from her blanket to slide over to Ranma's position. "Being a man wasn't why I never did anything with you." She answered, grabbing the sides of the smaller girl's head, and kissing her deeply. Ranma's eyes widened in shock momentarily before her eyelids drooped. The red head twisting on the bed to face Nabiki's body, bringing her legs up on the sheets.

Breaking off the kiss, Nabiki nearly slapped herself for doing that. "This may just be because I've been turned into an evil blood sucking monster, but it's like－ I don't know. When Akane hit you with that statue earlier I was terrified that you might be dead. When you were lying in that bed like a vegetable, I was so worried that you wouldn't wake up, and I'd have to face this alone."

"Idiot." Ranma got right up in Nabiki's face. "Our blood is the same now; we're closer than any twins. Didn't you hear when that crazy girl said she wanted a sister?"

"Then－ wait－ isn't that." She wasn't interested in incest.

"Monsters remember?" Ranma closed her eyes and Nabiki watched as the girl turned into a rough approximation of the original male form. "Did I get it right?" He patted down his chest before moving his hand to feel himself much lower. "Feels weird."

Nabiki's line of thought was derailed by Ranma's sudden change, having thought that she would have to look like she belonged in high school for all time. "How did you do that?"

"It's easy, just imagine what you want to be in your mind, and then make your body do it." Ranma was engrossed in feeling himself up like he had never been a boy before.

"Like this?" Her body was momentarily uncomfortable before she was a slightly more masculine version of herself. She imagined that she just looked like she had bound her breasts and she doubted that she got the details right between her legs.

"You make a very pretty boy." Ranma joked.

"So do you." He pointed out. Ranma may have become a man but his height hadn't increased and he looked like masculine woman. Deciding to mess with Ranma some more, he moved towards the other vampire with a sultry look. "We had the yuri earlier, want to finish with yaoi?" Nabiki had meant it as a joke but Ranma immediately looked at him like he was going to kill him. Shooting to the the far side of the bed, he brought up his hands in warding. "It was a joke! You know there's some fanfic out there that goes just like that."

"I'll never do anything with a man." Ranma's form melted back into a girl and she stared down at her lap. "Maybe when I was human－ if the circumstances were just perfect, if the planets aligned, and it was destined. But not after what I was forced to do. Not even with you."

Nabiki also went back to her real body, marveling briefly at how much control she had already. Changing into a guy might be an interesting diversion but now was not the time. "It's a good thing he's dead."

"But not before he wrecked my life, your's, and maybe Shampoo's."

"Well we should have a long time to pick up the pieces." Moving over to sit on the side of the bed with Ranma, she tried to imagine what the future would be like, but couldn't. She looked down when Ranma rested her hand on her thigh.

"It's horrible but I'm glad you're a vampire too." The red head smiled sadly. "Being alone like this, if he hadn't made it so I can't kill myself, I would have done it a long time ago."

"Say you're happy about that after I've been one more than a night." She laughed, knowing that there would be a lot she had to learn. Placing her own hand on Ranma's thigh, she traced her hand up and down it. She had never been this forward with anyone before, she just wanted to be as close to Ranma as possible. It could be that Ranma had become vitally important to her for dealing with her new life, it could be Ranma herself, or it could be some compulsion that the bastard who turned her had put in her head. The effect was still the same.

"Ya know I think that perverted copy isn't really gone." Ranma commented, leaning in towards her.

"Didn't you say she was?"

"Yea, but could you imagine me doing this otherwise?" Ranma smiled shyly, draping her arms around Nabiki's neck, and causing them to fall back on the bed. The red head looked down into her eyes. "And it's not like she didn't think she was the real Ranma. Maybe it was just me that was split, the parts he didn't like and the parts he did, and now we're back together."

"Good, because she did this amazing thing with her hands." Nabiki pecked Ranma on the cheek with a kiss and wrapped her arms around the other girl's waist to pull her down close to her. "Maybe being a vampire doesn't have to be all bad."

X x x x x x

Author Notes:

And that's it. This came out of an idea to have a sidestory where Ranma had never told the Saotomes and Tendos after becoming a vampire. Which lead to me thinking about Alucard simply not being in Japan. There might be a sequel but don't hold your breath.


End file.
